What I want to see with Bitcoin Cash

First and foremost, I see Bitcoin Cash as a new technology, and just as the internet decentralized information, I'm hoping Bitcoin Cash can decentralize money.

Those who are against the new funding initiative appear to have a problem due to what it represents, mainly due to the centralized nature of the plan. And how can you have decentralized money that runs on a centralized network? You can't. But the fact is, BCH was already shown to be centralized even before this plan. For example, last year we had a situation where miners acted together and orphaned blocks in order to protect the network against an attacker. They did so because they believed this was the best course of action for the future survival of Bitcoin Cash. And while I agree that a global money system can't have a central point of failure, having one today doesn't mean that this will be the case in the future.

When Satoshi started Bitcoin there was no choice but for it to be centralized, but as the network grew, that centralization went away. I hope to see something similar happen with Bitcoin Cash.

I want the initiative to go forth as planned, and I hope the mechanics work out so that the security of the chain is not threatened. I hope the funds raised will have a meaningful impact on our ecosystem and the price of BCH will rise in tandem so our devs will have the necessary runway needed to finish the roadmap and scale the network. As the price rises, more miners will mine BCH and increase decentralization and censorship resistance.

Perhaps you're thinking that's a whole lot of hoping. It's true. I certainly have my doubts as well. The biggest one being that these are mining pool operators and not miners themselves. Here I am relying on the expertise of the four individuals who signed the initiative to know that the miners will not abandon BCH. At the same time, I'd argue the opponents to this plan are equally high on their own brand of hopium where they hope BCH whales suddenly decide to start donating.

I get why some people in the community are vehemently against the new initiative. It seems antithetical to your idea of what Bitcoin is supposed to be. But I don't see it. Each actor is free to act in a way that they see as being most beneficial to themselves. No one is being forced to do anything against their will. This is still Bitcoin.

For months we've had switch miners gaming the difficulty adjustment, coming in and mining dozens of blocks in an hour, raising the difficulty, then leaving so that several hours pass before the next confirmation. In my view, it makes the network look like a joke.

People have tried thinking of ways to improve this, but by far the best solution would be to raise the BCH/BTC ratio. If BCH had more dedicated hash, it would be harder to game the system. To raise the ratio we need to raise the price, and to raise the price we need to signal to the market that the chance of BCH becoming a successful global payment network is greater than 4% of BTC.

For the past year I have heard from multiple people in BCH talk about how dire the situation is. Everything's on fire, they said, every project is on life support or being held together on a shoe string budget.

I get that people would rather fund the developers through donations, voluntarily, but that model hasn't been working, and now four of the biggest names involved in BCH have come together with an actual plan, and all we can do is resort to bikeshedding. If you oppose this plan, I say come up with something better and convince the miners, the devs, and the hodlers to support your plan.

Maybe in the end I'm proven wrong. Maybe this is no different from Blockstream taking over BTC, or nChain creating BSV, but I don't see it that way at all. There's also the possibility that the fund isn't enough and the devs still don't deliver. But I'd rather try this and see what happens than continue to do nothing other than bemoan the whales not contributing to infrastructure development like they should.

The people working on the various BCH implementations have accomplished some amazing things these past two years despite their lack of funding. We are starting to see the huge potential of CashFusion. We have SLP, and smart cards, and a vibrant community that supports the idea of economic freedom for the world. I want to think these developers have proved themselves capable, and have what it takes to insure the funds aren't wasted.

I think it's important that we not forget the four names who signed this bold initiative are four of the most important people involved in Bitcoin Cash. The network wouldn't exist without Jihan Wu, Haipo Yang, and Jiang Zhuoer. Without them, and the devs they're proposing to fund with this plan, the world would be stuck with only the small block version of Bitcoin. And it was only through the foresight of these gentlemen and a select group of developers that got us this far.

As for Roger Ver, I've had my issues with some of his past actions, but I acknowledge that his contributions are as important as anyone's in BCH. Bitcoin.com is a huge part of this ecosystem. Their wallet is the best in class, and just got even better. Local.bitcoin.com is essential in allowing people to trade peer to peer without giving up their identity. His company is behind so much of the development happening on top of BCH that there should be no reason to question his desire to increase the value of the Bitcoin Cash network.

If anyone wants to see Bitcoin Cash succeed, it's these four individuals. But it's not just them. How about every BCH thought leader that has come out in support of this plan: Amaury Sechet, Antony Zegers, Vin Armani, Jonald Fyookball, and the list goes on. You might say these are the people who stand to benefit the most from this fund, but if all they cared about was easy money, would they still be here? I'm confident any one of these developers could have found a job paying them hundreds of thousands of dollars in Silicon Valley and just sat on their BCH and waited for someone else to write the code. But that's not what they've been doing. They've sacrificed the last couple years of their lives dedicating themselves to this project that we all believe in.

Today, I believe that BCH is already the best version of Bitcoin. I don't think a better version has ever been in existence. But I also know we have a long way to go, and I think this initiative can help us get there. I don't think this breaks Nakamoto Consensus. I think all the incentives are working as intended in order for Bitcoin Cash to become the best money the world has ever seen.