I’m an amateur bitcoin hodler and don't know how it works as well as most here. Can you please explain to me what I've bought?
When I bought my bitcoins, I did so because I was sold on the principles of bitcoin, but recent events make me question whether I was naive and misinformed.
The reason I bought bitcoins is economic liberty. The knowledge that I can trust that my money won’t be stolen from me, coins restricted, used to spy on me, etc. Security and privacy basically. There is no better explanation of the purpose of bitcoin than this:
Out of all the things Satoshi could have put in the genesis block, he/she chose this so that we are forever reminded of the real value of bitcoin.
I didn’t buy bitcoins because of how many transactions it can process per minute, how widely adopted it is, or how cheap the payments are. I bought bitcoins because of the purpose it was designed for. I don’t confuse bitcoin and the blockchain. Bitcoin is a far greater invention.
Now I understand that code is only as trustworthy as the coders. Recently it seems that there is the possibility for bitcoin development to be co-opted by a few collectivists in China and an opportunist named Roger Ver, and ultimately the Chinese government in my opinion.
To me, a bitcoin that doesn’t prioritize liberty is not bitcoin. Any code that is called bitcoin that doesn’t respect these values should be looked at as virus. If B.U. wants to make a coin with the goal maximizing transactions and lowering fees at the cost of trust, security, and privacy, I think that’s great, they should go do that. I might even buy some. However, it’s NOT a bitcoin. It’s not what I was sold, and it’s not what I wanted when I bought bitcoin.
I think as bitcoin gains popularity it is inevitable that the community will expand to become a majority of users who do not have principles and will become a target to powerful and rich people to control. Now maybe I’m an idealistic nut and these things aren’t important to the people here, and that bitcoin should be whatever the majority or powerful want it to be. But if so, can someone please point me to the coin with principles so that I can make an exchange?
submitted by /u/doughtfool
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