Who is we? We is the BCH community. ALL of the BCH community. That includes BitcoinABC, Amaury, and all the people within their close circle who seem to be touting a "different narrative".
You can imagine Amaury as that uncle who feels a little too entitled to say what he wants, whenever he wants. Oftentimes it's annoying, sometimes even really aggravating (will he ever realize that maybe he isn't always right?). But he's family. In fact, even though you don't want to admit it, you remember that time when this same uncle came to defend you on something when others wouldn't take you seriously and that meant a lot to you. Now that you're more mature you may feel like you don't really need his support or his brash tactics, but deep down you know that's just the way he is and that he does mean well. And again, he's family.
There's a lot of speculation going on regarding the "true intentions" of ABC implementing aserti3-2d (ASERT) while also slipping in another version of infrastructure funding. I admit I am also cautious of the motives, but let's give the benefit of the doubt and have things discussed openly and honestly. Enough of this game theory and 4D chess bullcrap. Either both sides want p2p cash that will improve the lives of millions of people or they don't. Will some get slightly more or less recognition for their work? Seems likely, which sucks, but at least when things are discussed openly there is more clarity to what decisions are being made, by who/when, and what work they do to put it to action. Open source is a tool to communicate work more fairly and effectively.
I want ABC to get proper funding. They deserve it and I understand their insistence on this issue. We should be working, as a large family, to help this uncle. By coming towards him (with proper boundaries), we can help him in a way that will be productive to his own individual needs and that of the family. DO NOT PUSH HIM AWAY.
To this uncle, I would like to say that you can be a bit of an asshole. You probably know this, but stop downplaying it. I get a little tired of this "let the markets decide", "free markets are the only thing that matter" narrative. Obviously, this is important philosophically and a view that has a lot of merit. But i've seen people imply that this is all that matters. For starters, it's well known that humans are notoriously bad at making short terms decisions and even worse at making long term decisions. So, by definition, letting everyone simply decide what they want to do means they can only be as good as their (often faulty) judgement is. Even very smart people are prone to this. Second, the aversion to groupthink is healthy, but to insist that all groupthink is always stupid, misguided and toxic is missing the point. Coming together on issues is what lets us move forward with impact. Can it take a bad turn and lead people astray? Sure, but so can anything else. It's our job to evaluate and reevaluate as necessary.
Amaury, some of us want to see you get the financial/social recognition you deserve, but for a while now you've found yourself in a hole while holding a shovel, and your instinct is to keep digging. We want to help you out. We are extending our hand. Please take it.
BCHN and anyone else that's on this "we're not against ABC, but we kind of are" trend: try and bring the discussion back to a healthier place. You see that you have a lot of community support, please stick to your ideals as you presented them. If they have changed, be respectful enough to the community to make them known so that we aren't wandering around for nothing. I believe that you are right in saying this:
BCHN's general approach is, though, to make sure the need and impact are both reasonable, and doing proper research on things - so that problems in between "roadmap items" may be uncovered, and potential new useful things can be done with proper community understanding.
That also means listening and evaluating ABC's technical ideas/work. We know there are some personal differences, but honestly, it shouldn't matter so long as we are all heading to the same destination of p2p cash. You guys are better than that, please rise to the occasion.
Actionable steps:
No one knows me, I have no affiliation to anyone, I have no agendas and I'm largely irrelevant (I hope it stays this way). That being said, I do care about interpersonal interaction, ethics and values, and seeing BCH reach it's full potential. As far as BCH reaching its potential, we are still on that track., but there is work to be done on all issues. Here are some ideas:
Working on better, more official, channels of discussions for things that might have serious consequences (*ahem* softforking and hardforking changes)
Having a recognized place that allows a "brainstorming" of ideas, proposals and things people intend to work on and potentially implement in the future. If there's going to be differences in opinion, they should come up ahead of time and be discussed on their merits. These should also be accompanied with small notes on why they may be important and given a weight to how strongly you feel about them.
More interpersonal interaction.
Monthly check ins?
Small hobby projects and initiatives done collaboratively?
Meme competitions?
“In my career I've found few people are truly evil, most are just too far disconnected from the effects of their actions,” he wrote. “Until someone reconnects them.”
Source: https://www.wired.com/story/confessions-marcus-hutchins-hacker-who-saved-the-internet/
This is not just wishful thinking. We're in a good place. The development is strong (it needs to be stronger and more forward moving, but this is not insurmountable and we can make up the deficit). The community and the BCH vision is there.
But we've taken a detour. Let's get back on track.
Cheers,
Mono
I like where you're coming from, though I think we're probably too late at this point. ABC's code freeze is in about a week and I doubt that all the other nodes will accept the ABC funding plan during that time, so I don't see reconciliation happening unless ABC violates its own feature/code freeze...which, I guess, may be possible since Amaury is the dictator over there. I still don't think he'll back down unless, perhaps, miners make it clear that ABC will be a minority chain come November. Even then, I would not be surprised if he decides it's not worth it and decides to stop developing for BCH and go back to Facebook (or elsewhere).