Adam Back, is without a doubt, one of the most controverted guys in the cryptocurrency world. Named in the Bitcoin whitepaper as the creator of HashCash, he can be considered one of the OG Bitcoiners out there. Inventor of the proof of work system, this enigmatic figure can be identified as maybe the first Bitcoin Maximalist out there, criticizing viable alternatives to solve the Bitcoin scaling problem and calling them a scam frequently.
The term "Bitcoin maximalist" was coined by Vitalik Buterin, one of the creators of Ethereum, perhaps the first real altcoin back then. And even in 2014, they were hurting from this concept. Vitalik wrote on his now famous article "On Bitcoin Maximalism, and Currency and Platform Network Effects" that "it is a stance that building something on Bitcoin is the only correct way to do things, and that doing anything else is unethical (see this post for a rather hostile example). Bitcoin maximalists often use “network effects” as an argument, and claim that it is futile to fight against them."
And this sadly has been exacerbated even today, with several key opinion leaders having hostile opinions regarding what have been called "shitcoins," a term used to refer to any coin that proposes anything different that Bitcoin. Back's Bitcoin maximalism is unquestionable: He has had many scuffles with Buterin calling Ethereum a premined pump and dump scheme, and also comparing the supposed failure of the Ethereum project with the failure of Theranos, a medical company founded by Elizabeth Holmes.
If Back always held his word to the supposed superiority of the Bitcoin blockchain over all other chains, he would be uncriticizable . But, sadly, this has not always been true. Bitcoin is not a one size fit all solution for any problem, and one of his firsts missteps on the subject was his disgraceful "keeping tabs" suggestion back when 2017, when fees reached ATH levels. While he referred to these altcoins like Tron and Eos as marketing driven coins (and even talked about not even remembering their names in an interview), he is now promoting one of the most controverted chains out there: Tron.
Created by Justin Sun, one of the most loathed cryptocurrency personalities, known for making announcements of announcements, and under delivering constantly, it seems Tron is the latest weapon of Back to leverage against its hated Ethereum peers. The latests Satoshi Roundtable Conference was the stage for a cute selfie that shows Adam Back and Justin Sun smiling, a picture that reminds us of the also famous "The Three Amigos" picture of Tone Vays and Craig Wright taken not so long ago.
The tweet depicting the picture also had a message pointing to Tron moving to the Liquid network, the next attempt of Blockstream to take hold and monetize part of the Bitcoin transactions for themselves. This could be taken as a troll joke, but the situation continued with several tweets by Back endorsing Tron over Ethereum. Sadly, by endorsing a "shitcoin" over other "shitcoin," the whole maximalism thesis falls under its own weight, along with his credibility. Some articles are claiming this selfie was paid by the Tron foundation, using a Whale Alert tweet of a Tron payment worth $6 million as evidence.
Even if this is not the case, the cynicism of Back, claiming these other chains as Tron and EOS are inferior and will dilute themselves over time as he endorses one over the other and promotes its founders cannot be ignored. This shows that, for people over the ranks, maximalism is just a petty word leveraged when it is useful, instead of the shield and sword many users wear proudly day by day to claim the superiority of Bitcoin over all coins out there.
Till the next shitty compendium!
i have "NO COMMENT!"
(other than, u know, this comment)