The IFP is evolution. Vive la évolution!

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Written by
4 years ago

Saturday, August 15th, 2020

Bitcoin Cash is a system built on incentives.

BCH doesn't care about your ideology, it doesn't care about who thanked who, or whatever you might have thought the project originally stood for.

What BCH cares about is surviving, and growing, like a virus.

Bitcoin Cash doesn't have a soul, it has lines of code. But don't make the mistake of thinking BCH isn't a technology that lives and breathes in its own way, and is constantly evolving.

Of everything that's happened to Bitcoin since its inception, I believe what is about to happen on the Bitcoin Cash chain this November has the potential to be seen as the biggest event since the first transaction sent by Satoshi to Hal Finney in block 170.

Mike Hearn famously wrote that the Bitcoin experiment had failed. But I believe he was wrong, and that the existence of BCH proves it. Despite everything this chain has endured, it is still standing. Blocks are still being mined, transactions are still being processed, and people are still building on what appears to be the only branch of Bitcoin that is continuing to evolve.

I know many of you believe that if the IFP is backed by the majority of miners, you will feel much like Mike did, that the experiment has failed. But why?

None of us can possibly know how things are going to play out in November. There are too many moving parts, too many unknown variables, but I for one believe the miners will choose the IFP because it is the next logical step to continue BCH's evolution.

As someone who didn't get into Bitcoin until 2017, I can only imagine how disappointing it must have been when the Core developers prevented BTC from evolving by refusing to increase the block size. To not be able to make such a simple fix that would have kept the chain working as intended must have been disheartening to say the least. So I understand the concern of putting too much power into the hands of a small group of individuals, but I don't share those concerns.

To me, the fact that Bitcoin Cash has survived this long is a miracle. As the minority chain, and arguably the most despised in the industry, it's incredible so many of us are still here. And I believe we are still here because in spite of all the infighting, and the drama, Bitcoin Cash still embodies the grand vision we all share for p2p electronic cash.

From my perspective, I don't see how activation of the IFP changes that. If anything, it serves as a signal that important players are tired of moving in place, that they finally feel a sense of urgency and are ready to take that next step and move forward.

I know many people see the IFP as a tax. They believe it creates a central point of failure, that it gives too much power to one person, and that it adds perverse incentives.

But there are always two sides to a story. Whereas you see the IFP as a tax, I see it as an opportunity for miners to voluntarily fund the team they believe to be essential for their future. While you choose to see Bitcoin ABC as a central point of failure, I see this as an opportunity for ABC to become a focal point that gives rise to a new era of prosperity.

For the first time in the history of BCH, we have an opportunity to properly fund our most accomplished builders, and a mechanism to do it in such a way that it will almost entirely be paid for by rival BTC miners.

You argue the IFP will introduce perverse incentives, this imaginary scenario where donating 8% of the block reward (~$4M over 6 months at today's prices) will encourage Bitcoin ABC to simply rest on their laurels and not get any work done. I disagree vehemently. In fact I believe the total opposite is true and that the IFP will further incentivize them to work harder because adding value to the chain will result in their funding to go up. They will also no longer be forced to work with one arm tied around their back, they will be able to offer a stable environment that allows them to plan ahead rather having to expend their energy only putting out fires or on needless tasks like getting more funding.

I believe that the presence of the IFP can also help us get rid of very real perverse incentives that already exist in the BCH ecosystem today. Like the incentive to free ride. Ask yourself, of all those miners who recently signed the joint statement in opposition of the IFP, have they ever donated anything to ABC or did they just use it for free while other miners paid for it?

I believe the IFP can help us remove the incentive for hobbyists and part-time BCH developers to keep the status quo so that they can maintain their positions of leadership. Imagine if ABC could hire more world-class cryptographers and computer scientists to help them build Bitcoin Cash into what they envision? Is that in the best interest of all those developers who also signed a joint statement in opposition of the IFP?

And finally, I believe the IFP can help us get rid of the incentive for people to spend so much time virtue signaling on social media in order to get donations from certain parties.

Some have said that if BCH had announced a consensus level infrastructure fund from the very beginning, they would have never joined. As if implementing the IFP is breaking some kind of social contract, but I refute that argument as well. I would never want to put Bitcoin Cash into a box. We need to let it evolve and go wherever it needs to go in order to become censorship resistant p2p digital cash. In my mind, giving ABC power isn't just like what happened with Core, but preventing BCH from evolving would be.

I've noticed everyone who is opposed to the IFP only focuses on the negative. They appear to be unable to see a version of the future where the IFP acts as intended and ushers in a new era of rapid building for BCH.

Yes, it's always possible that Amaury can wake up one day and decide to run off with a couple million dollars and forever tarnish his legacy, but I have a strong feeling he values his integrity much more than that. So while you worry about what can go wrong, I choose to imagine what can go right, and how with the support of the miners, ABC can finally deliver on the roadmap they've been promising from the start.

I think all of us who have become involved in BCH want the same things. We just have different ideas on how best to get there. I also think we all believe in the idea of economic freedom, and to me, the IFP is an initiative that falls under that umbrella.

According to The Heritage Foundation, "Economic freedom is the fundamental right of every human to control his or her own labor and property. In an economically free society, individuals are free to work, produce, consume, and invest in any way they please."

Based on the above, you cannot deny ABC their right to change their code in any way they desire. The miners are free to run whatever node they prefer. And investors and users are free to invest and use whatever currency they want. It is only through such voluntary actions that we have a free market, and I would argue that anyone who wishes to deter such actions is acting in a way that limits our economic freedom.

People have been saying for a long time that ABC should run their operation like a profit seeking business. Well, guess what, they've just figured out how to do exactly that. For the past three years, they've worked tirelessly to build their reputation with the miners, and proved they could be relied upon to run a multi-billion dollar network. They've delivered solutions, beginning from the day they created BCH on August 1st, 2017, and achieved what so many other teams failed to do previously. Now it's time for them to capitalize on that work.

Some are afraid the price of BCH will fall if ABC gets majority hash this November. But I don't think that's true.

For the past couple of years, I believe what has held BCH back more than anything is the lack of funding for its most important team, Bitcoin ABC. It's been the dominant story line ever since late 2018, this constant concern that ABC is on the verge of running out of money. But imagine what the market will do once that concern has been removed? I can't help but think the market recognizes the importance of a strong and reliable leadership team, and by removing the danger of losing the leadership of ABC, the market should react positively.

It's one thing to have rest.bitcoin.com always on the fritz, or work on the badger wallet be discontinued, but if the team behind the lead implementation were to disappear tomorrow, I don't know if that's something Bitcoin Cash can recover from.

Maybe you don't agree, but for me Bitcoin ABC is what's keeping BCH alive. They are the ones who have been maintaining the valuable relationships with the miners and exchanges to ensure BCH provides a high quality user experience. Blocks are created, transactions are processed, and businesses build on top of BCH because they can depend on it to run as intended, and that's mostly thanks to the work of Bitcoin ABC.

If you couldn't tell, I am genuinely excited by this new direction that BCH is embarking upon. It's as if the previous three years have been nothing more than a prelude to what's about to happen this November. All the history, and the characters, and the various dramas between them, have been leading to this moment.

For the first time, miners will be forced to put their money on the line and make a decision. The stakes will be as high as they have ever been, and November 15th is the day they finally choose the direction of this project. Will BCH be a be a system based on incentives and capitalistic ideas? Or will it be a socialistic system requiring the survival of the project be based on the goodwill of the community?

As always, thank you for reading.

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Avatar for Cain
Written by
4 years ago

Comments

WOW, well said. You refuted a lot of the troll army's false arguments that the anti-IFP movement uses to fool the community into joining their attack on BCH funding. Funding, that's the thing that scared the anti-BCH forces into going all-in on stopping the IFP. Funding BCH development is the most scary thing to the troll masters. Many in our community have fallen for their dishonest and false-logic arguments and now fight side-by-side with the anti-BCH troll army. Somehow, they can't see that or keep themselves from reveling in their dishonest hate-based attacks on BCH's most trustworthy team. It is so satisfying to hate Amaury it is easy to believe he has bad intent towards BCH without any evidence of that being the case.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

So I understand the concern of putting too much power into the hands of a small group of individuals, but I don't share those concerns.

No reasoning, you just don't share the concerns?

I see it as an opportunity for miners to voluntarily fund the team they believe to be essential for their future.

In the IFP branch that will be created in the November chainsplit, it is not voluntary, they will orphan non-IFP-blocks. So to avoid IFP, the miner needs to follow the non-IFP branch, it is meaningless to try to extend the IFP chain with non-IFP blocks.

For the first time in the history of BCH, we have an opportunity to properly fund our most accomplished builders, and a mechanism to do it in such a way that it will almost entirely be paid for by rival BTC miners.

This is a grave misconception of how the economics of mining works. The effect of the IFP is only that the IFP branch after the split will have 8% less hashpower compared to what it should have, based on abc-coin price. The BTC miners pay nothing, and the abc-coin miners pay nothing. A portion of the mining subsidy, which is supposed to go to securing the chain, is diverted to some other purpose.

Yes, it's always possible that Amaury can wake up one day and decide to run off with a couple million dollars

The problem here is that he or whoever get the money, will become a target.

Based on the above, you cannot deny ABC their right to change their code in any way they desire.

The code abc has produced is combined with a large codebase other people have written, and the abc code ownership is partially given away with the MIT license they are bound to also adhere to. The remaining ownership on the parts of the code written by abc is mostly only the ideal part of the ownership. Which means other projects and all users can do anything with abc's code, except to claim they wrote it.

Will BCH be a be a system based on incentives and capitalistic ideas? Or will it be a socialistic system requiring the survival of the project be based on the goodwill of the community?

The IFP is the socialism in this question, stealing from the coinbase.

The IFP is a total castration of bitcoin as envisioned by the creator and all users up to this point. Nobody were ever supposed to get coins for free.

You seem to be totally fixated on this idea, and maybe fearful, to the degree that you can not think any more.

$ 0.25
4 years ago

I didn't put it in the article but basically I'm tired of waiting for all you "developers" to agree on things and make decisions. I'm with Joannes Vermorel that we need a leader to lead us.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Have you reached out and talked with the other node teams about why there's been less progress than you'd expect?

I've talked with some, and they claim it's a case of "perfect is the enemy of good". I'm sure it's not perfectly black and white, but I have seen it firsthand on multiple occasions now.

It's very hard to get everyone to "agree" if one or more of the parties take absolutist perfectionist roles.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

If they have better code prove it is ready for prime time use. Test it on a testnet or alternate node. Show us how to scale or how to have zero-conf or .... ABC can be as picky as they want to be on their own node. I think we like that about them.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Interesting writeup, I appreciate to actually hear some arguments for the ABC side because it gives us a chance to discuss them.

Bitcoin Cash is a system built on incentives. BCH doesn't care about your ideology, it doesn't care about who thanked who, or whatever you might have thought the project originally stood for.

I strongly disagree. BCH was created based on ideology, not incentives. People who saw that BTC was misguided and led by profit seeking companies. Look how many people contribute to the BCH ecosystem basically for free. They will leave it if the miners decide that a unilateral reward system for ABC should be established and such toxic behaviour rewarded.

Blocks are still being mined, transactions are still being processed, and people are still building on what appears to be the only branch of Bitcoin that is continuing to evolve.

You do realize that a lot of these people will quit building on BCH once it is turned into a single-company coin

I know many of you believe that if the IFP is backed by the majority of miners, you will feel much like Mike did, that the experiment has failed. But why?

Because it is not an IFP. It is a Bitcoin ABC Funding Plan. There may be acceptable methods of funding an ecosystem through the coin reward but hard coding all the fees to go to a single company is so flawed that it should be rejected outright by anyone who has read the whitepaper.

So I understand the concern of putting too much power into the hands of a small group of individuals, but I don't share those concerns.

Can you elaborate why not? The biggest issue is that we would be putting too much power into the hands of one person, a person that has acted like a lone wolf for many months now.

And I believe we are still here because in spite of all the infighting, and the drama, Bitcoin Cash still embodies the grand vision we all share for p2p electronic cash.

I fully agree on this. However, what you fail to recognize is that funding a single party through the fees would eliminate this vision for 90% of the people who currently work on BCH. I only know a handful of people who argue for this AFP.

If anything, it serves as a signal that important players are tired of moving in place, that they finally feel a sense of urgency and are ready to take that next step and move forward.

I think to most people it would signal that any attempts at cooperation have failed and that ramming through changes against the community's wishes is being rewarded.

Whereas you see the IFP as a tax, I see it as an opportunity for miners to voluntarily fund the team they believe to be essential for their future.

They can already do that. Nobody stops them from donating to ABC or any other node. The exact difference from a voluntary donation is that the AFP is forcing all network members to contribute to a node that they do not even use or want to support.

While you choose to see Bitcoin ABC as a central point of failure, I see this as an opportunity for ABC to become a focal point that gives rise to a new era of prosperity.

Once could almost says that this focal point would be the focus of all development and if that focus were to be pointed in the wrong direction, the project would fail.

For the first time in the history of BCH, we have an opportunity to properly fund our most accomplished builders, and a mechanism to do it in such a way that it will almost entirely be paid for by rival BTC miners.

Are you saying that BTC miners will voluntarily fund BCH development? No, they will be forced to.

You argue the IFP will introduce perverse incentives, this imaginary scenario where donating 8% of the block reward (~$4M over 6 months at today's prices) will encourage Bitcoin ABC to simply rest on their laurels and not get any work done.

They have already received $1.5M and have not implemented a single relevant change for november. All their efforts in the last 6 months have been a huge distraction and a net negative for BCH.

In fact I believe the total opposite is true and that the IFP will further incentivize them to work harder because adding value to the chain will result in their funding to go up.

Unfortunately it also incentivized them to keep others out of the block rewards by any means necessary because that would result in their funding going down. Also 8M per years is a pretty comfortable free income for any company of ABC's size.

Ask yourself, of all those miners who recently signed the joint statement in opposition of the IFP, have they ever donated anything to ABC or did they just use it for free while other miners paid for it?

Do you have any data on this? This is pure speculation.

I believe the IFP can help us remove the incentive for hobbyists and part-time BCH developers to keep the status quo so that they can maintain their positions of leadership.

Wow. Do you really think it's a good thing to replace people who are motivated by ideology with people who are only motivated by money? Do you know how many people contribute to the Linux kernel without being paid by the Linux foundation?

Imagine if ABC could hire more world-class cryptographers and computer scientists to help them build Bitcoin Cash into what they envision? Is that in the best interest of all those developers who also signed a joint statement in opposition of the IFP?

If you had watched any of the developer meetings you would see that these devs want nothing more than a professional, evidence and fact based development to happen. Have you heard any of them speak out against the flipstarter campaigns that bring outside knowledge into our ecosystem? This accusation is baseless and insulting to those who spend their free time making the software you use daily happen.

I would never want to put Bitcoin Cash into a box. We need to let it evolve and go wherever it needs to go in order to become censorship resistant p2p digital cash.

You should think about how censorship resistant an ecosystem with a single implementation is. Put pressure on ABC or corrupt it and you can control everything.

I've noticed everyone who is opposed to the IFP only focuses on the negative. They appear to be unable to see a version of the future where the IFP acts as intended and ushers in a new era of rapid building for BCH.

Join the BCHN slack and look around. You will see people doing code reviews, coming up with new ideas, discussing the merits of new proposals etc. Look how productive the DAA discussions were going before Amaury introduced his boneheaded Grasberg announcement. It derailed all productive development.

I also think we all believe in the idea of economic freedom, and to me, the IFP is an initiative that falls under that umbrella.

Yes, nothing shouts freedom like forcing people mining with BCHN to pay money to ABC. Nothing shouts freedom like forcing all BTC miners to pay for BCH development. Nothing shouts freedom like having a single person decide the future of the entire project based on unilateral decision making.

Based on the above, you cannot deny ABC their right to change their code in any way they desire.

They are free to propose and implement all kinds of bullshit (IFP v1, Grasberg, IFP v2). We are free to reject it.

The miners are free to run whatever node they prefer.

This freedom will be greatly limited once a single node ecosystem has been established as your are proposing.

It is only through such voluntary actions that we have a free market, and I would argue that anyone who wishes to deter such actions is acting in a way that limits our economic freedom.

As you explained, ABC is free to implement whatever they want.

I can't help but think the market recognizes the importance of a strong and reliable leadership team, and by removing the danger of losing the leadership of ABC, the market should react positively.

If you can look at the last year of ABC's history and claim that they are a reliable leadership team, I have a bridge to sell you. We would never be in this situation if Amaury was capable of collaborating and engaging people. There are plenty of people willing to work on BCH completely for free, but they keep getting demotivated by the toxic environment ABC creates.

If you couldn't tell, I am genuinely excited by this new direction that BCH is embarking upon.

So am I, lets end this with us both agreeing on this :)

$ 0.00
4 years ago

So you follow the BCHN, BU, Knuth, Verde, BCHD chain. I have no problem with that.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

This professional anti-BCH troll is a real smooth talker. Most of her/his arguments are distractions or dishonest or based on false logic, but, they sound so good.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

they dont even sound good.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

ToO MuCh WALl Of TeXt, HuRr DuRr!

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Very informative keep it up

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Imformative article

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Thank you for the writing from an advocate's perspective. It helps convince me that IFP is devastating and abc should go for bch to grow.

$ 0.10
4 years ago

Nice article

$ 0.00
4 years ago

GreAt article👌 Very helpful

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Its really great news. Help for us

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User's avatar Mrm
4 years ago

Bch is king

$ 0.00
4 years ago

[deleted]

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Another bot already posted an exact copy of that talking point.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I already sub you

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Sub plz dear

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Sub plz

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Good info

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Nice article

$ 0.00
4 years ago

You contain is knowledgeable. My English is very low but also , I have read all contain. I want a my thought Share with you. Maybe time money name is crypto currency. Because human like change.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Nice article

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Great article as always Cain! I'm excited to see what miners choose for this upgrade!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this matter! I agree with everything you're saying and I think that either way this goes it's going to be a huge win for BCH!

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I'm on the fence on this one: the miners will decide, and IFP needs more details and explanations, but take my donation as a compliment to your writing, which is quite good.

It's good to see articles from the other side of the debate.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Thank you for the tip and the compliment. I have to believe more details will be provided over the coming days and look forward to them as well.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Interesting

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Thank you for sharing your article, I just subscribed to receive more from you. Your post is educating

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Will BCH be a be a system based on incentives and capitalistic ideas? Or will it be a socialistic system requiring the survival of the project be based on the goodwill of the community?

As a capitalist myself, I find myself aligned with the latter .. couldn't ever imagine going back from Linux to Microsoft, but then again I primarily use a Mac (that's based on Linux) 🤔

will miss your writings after the split 😔 will enjoy while I can (especially enjoyed the movies reviews, too bad there are no more new movies)

$ 0.00
4 years ago

lol I would prefer to write non political articles as well. This might actually be the last one. I feel like everyone has made up their minds at this point and there's nothing left to do but wait for November. Thanks for all the words of encouragement nyusternie =)

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Good actually

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Good article, really help me

$ 0.00
4 years ago

We can't possibly know how things will go.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Nice work good article thank you

$ 0.00
4 years ago

This is a great things to read. Thanks for sharing

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Good job

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Very interesting to read your fantastic article written specifically for BCH. Indeed, it is true that Bitcoin Cash is a system built on incentives. Thank you so much for clear understanding about BCH background and other important factors about its origin, usage and other tips. Noted all the info. Awesome.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

If you couldn't tell, I am genuinely excited by this new direction that BCH is embarking upon. It's as if the previous three years have been nothing more than a prelude to what's about to happen this November. All the history, and the characters, and the various dramas between them, have been leading to this moment.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Wow that great

$ 0.00
4 years ago

As I always I share your views. I am a bit disheartened, that this has to be repeated so often by now. As you say, people have made up their minds and if logic doesn't make one grok the basics, social aspects won't sway them either. I can't wait for November either.

$ 0.20
4 years ago

Every good thing has an evolution, how it started and where it has gotten to.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

you cannot deny ABC their right to change their code in any way they desire.

ABC is free to do what they fancy with their attention ..but if that is not aligned with what the BCH stakeholders want, it is going to result in a shitshow. simple as that. https://read.cash/@tula_s/briefly-on-governance-ff06770f

$ 0.02
4 years ago

Wonderful writing

$ 0.00
4 years ago