A roadmap to busting small blocker myths about Bitcoin

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4 years ago

Article is also available in: ⬤ Español ⬤ Deutsch ⬤ português


This will be an anchor post for collecting a bunch of myths propagated through Bitcoin's history, about how Bitcoin cannot scale or cannot otherwise work as Satoshi intended.

These myths were successfully used to stall scaling and adoption of Bitcoin, until Bitcoin Cash finally came along (well, came about through the blood, sweat and tears of a lot of the early adopters and proponents of on-chain scaling).

I will be updating the list of myths as this progresses, based on the community's feedback in comment or other information I collect.

Counterproductive Myths

Collaborating on the mythbusting

Please help by adding myths you can think of which I haven't mentioned yet, or good source materials like previous articles about the myths already mentioned by others, in the comments. Better wording for existing myths is also appreciated, if you think you have a better formulation.

You can also greatly help by translating any Mythbusting articles into languages for which no translations are available yet. Please see the translation article for a list of which articles exist in which languages - then you can determine if you can translate something to another language.

Going forward in this series, I'd prefer if we can give each myth a full-length article treatment. There is more than enough material and things to say about each.

While I will be tackling the listed myths myself, I don't want to monopolize the writing effort in any way. Thus I encourage other authors also: take one or several of these myths, and write an article on them.

Positive contributors may receive #MYTHBUSTER tokens which are intended as a reward token, and for dividends issued by anyone feeling generous toward the mythbusting effort (using a tool like https://tools.bitcoin.com/slp-dividend-calculator/ ).
So make sure you are able to obtain an SLP address for yourself (get the Badger Wallet, Crescent Cash wallet or Electron Cash SLP edition, all of which support SLP tokens)!

Commenting is free on read.cash, and good contributions will be rewarded by myself here, as I see this myth-busting article series as a collaborative writing project to which we (BCH community) can all contribute.

If you don't have time to contribute by comments, you can still support BTCfork to get this educational article series written by tipping or better yet, becoming a sponsor of ours on this platform.

It's super easy, and even the smallest amounts will help and are most appreciated!


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4 years ago

Comments

another myths:

bigger blocks will inevitably lead to centralization

SPV is not secure

Bitcoin cannot scale

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4 years ago

^^^

This is the kind of contribution of good suggestions for topics that receives MYTHBUSTER reward tokens.

Please let me know an SLP address, and you will be the first to receive some.

Note that the first one is already covered in my list as 'Blocks need to be kept small to keep the system decentralized'. Your way of putting it is probably closer to how that myth is usually expressed, so it's a good way to put it in an article title.

I've added your other two myths to the list.

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4 years ago

My contribute for the Mythbusting - Bitcoin is necessarily energy-inefficient because of POW:

https://read.cash/@AlanOne/mythbusting-bitcoin-is-necessarily-energy-inefficient-because-of-pow-de8a9853

my simple ledger: simpleledger:qqv9qg3dxyuqd75wdauyhuw9kkx5q85srgfzmfzt2c

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4 years ago

Thanks. Please see my reply to your article.

I have sent you +50 MYTHBUSTER in the meantime.

txid: c512619a1febc3b2953a1d201ef5f73c901dadfb966a28ce6e72e8fefdee986c

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4 years ago

Actually, some of these myths are true, and some is partially true.

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4 years ago

Love the idea!

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4 years ago

Hey, I translated this to German, https://read.cash/@kaogumi/de-fahrplan-zur-bekampfung-schadlicher-geruchte-um-bitcoin-69991a66

simpleledger:qz8hj7s4slcpdsw49s0tu2nwcq5zy2w845jka9at6f

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4 years ago

Thanks! I will post a reply under that thread.

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4 years ago

Hi! I think my article linked here is full of mythbusting even if it was not aimed at a specific myth from the roadmap. https://read.cash/@Big-Bubbler/the-troll-army-still-cant-stop-magic-internet-money-c42f683f The Myth that the Bitcoin community supported the small blockers failure to increase the blocksize is a big part of how they pulled it off. Many still think the majority did support that decision. I did not prove my claim and the trolls will say I am wrong, but, I am pretty sure big-blockers were the majority of miners and community members. Fake accounts made it seem like we were a minority.

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4 years ago

I have had trouble describing the myth, but here is couple ways to say it (feel free to reword it). Myth:

The majority of the Bitcoin community preferred not to hard-fork to allow larger blocks.

or

The small-block movement was supported by the majority of the Bitcoin community.

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4 years ago

Also:

Actually, concerned_mouse is a goldmine for myths :) like "BCH is printable money"

simpleledger:qpmxuwd34z8ekj05wy02yluxz8e7fpcnz5944wyz76 (just in case ;) )

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4 years ago

Congrats, you are the first MYTHBUSTER recipient. (20 tokens)

51e0bbdb000a6124daedbf2561f310ea4ee4e3ddd3234852152e6f187255fe74

I will integrate your topic suggestions into the article shortly.

I also need to write a how-to with a suggestion for an outline of a good myth busting post aka "Proof of Myth".

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4 years ago

IDK if this is a myth or not:

Bitcoin Cash is "printable" unlike BTC.

Sounds crazy, but it was told to me and replied to with some #mythbusting.

I don't even know if I should make it an article, because it's the first time I've heard such an idea...

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4 years ago

It's some kind of new myth about Bitcoin Cash. We may need to distinguish myths a bit according to their subject, perhaps even create separate lists for myths specific to BTC, Lightning Network, BCH...

But first of all I'd like to cover the classic ones about Bitcoin BTC and its small block approach.

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4 years ago

Yeah, I think the separation might be in order.

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4 years ago

Got it! Thanks! :)

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4 years ago

Thanks for this contribution from Twitter!

https://twitter.com/GeukensMathieu/status/1200014199147188225

I'll try to tackle "Bigger blocks means less full nodes"

Looks pretty much like what I called "Blocks need to be kept small to keep the system decentralized", depending on the angle it explores.

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Mythbusting: "Bigger blocks means less full nodes" https://read.cash/@Mr-Zwets/mythbusting-bigger-blocks-means-less-full-nodes-18fdab24

simpleledger:qzljwutal67gmugk4ed7ug0y374v9xmdlve4x6ac97

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4 years ago

A solid article. 100 MYTHBUSTER tokens awarded.

50ff14711181832bc929e8c852afc96aab5945b659de0cc2720e2e044e522097

Some feedback will be given as comments under the post itself.

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