This year has been off to a really rocky start. All the infighting within the Bitcoin Cash community is pretty discouraging, to say the least. Even more so, considering that many of the people having problems with each other are well respected folks and I consider them to be heroes in the space.
Mike Hearn was right when he said that Bitcoin Cash strongly resembles the Bitcoin community of 2014 and that’s not good. Bitcoin Cash has yet to solve the root cause of the problem and last time we saw his prophecy came true in the form of BSV and this year in the form of IFP. Different parties, different issues, same old problem. And as long as the community continue to fight over the symptoms, without rectifying the root cause of the problem, we’ll continue to see different parties, different issues, same old problem manifesting itself year after year.
Regrettably, when I saw things getting from bad to worse (admittedly abit too late), I tried and failed miserably to solve that root cause when I contacted ABC, Roger, and Peter Rizun. It was very frustrating to me that I can see what’s about to happen, and yet unable to prevent it. In fact, I remember few months ago, I told one of the key person in BCH that I can already see a train coming to hit the community.
Like I said, Mike Hearn was right. He is one of the smartest person I know in the crypto space, not just because of his technical capabilities, but his foresight and his ability to identify the root cause from the symptoms.
As someone who used to run a company in the medical industry, I like to say, “Treat the cause, not the symptoms.” Because as long as the root cause is not treated, we will continue to see such problems manifesting itself year after year.
There are some things I wish people would do that would be so much more helpful.
- Be calm and present your arguments. Attack the arguments, not the person. Shouting and accusations will not endear the other party to you. I can’t remember a single time when I shouted, “YOU STUPID IDIOT!” and the other party goes, “Damn, you are right about XYZ! Thanks for shouting at me because that makes it so much clearer to me now.”
- Just because someone has a different opinion from you doesn’t necessarily mean they are stupid or wrong or that person is the devil. In fact, even popular opinions can be wrong (eg. The 2007 housing market collapse). I wish people can be more tolerant of opposing ideas and viewpoints, because not everyone is a genius like you and when I am wrong, I like to understand and learn so that next time I can be smarter (like you)!
- Be kind to others
