In the midst of all of this infighting amongst the crypto community, this endless debate over whose plan is most aligned with our hero, Satoshi Nakamoto, I want to ask a simple question: Does Satoshi’s original vision matter? Should we, (at the risk of sounding like members of a cult) the believers in the base technology he built, care what he would do now?
In my opinion, we shouldn't.
In the same way that, in the United States of America, legislators (and voters behind them) have continued to iterate on a Constitution that's hundreds of years old, developers today are iterating on Satoshi’s original code. Some people approach this impasse (and future divisive issues) that we’ve reached by considering whether he/she could've foreseen it (probably), and what they might've planned. The only thing that matters is the future health and success of the technology. For different people, that means different things, and that’s okay. Whether someone wants to continue developing Bitcoin based on their own ideas, or base it entirely on what they think Satoshi would do today, it shouldn’t matter.
Let the Tech Speak for Itself
No one, even Satoshi, can say definitively which path is the best way forward. The only way to find out is through trial and error. (Once again, I want to draw the comparison between Satoshi and the founders of the USA, who failed completely at their first attempt at a constitution. If you want to stretch the analogy even further, imagine that the USA is a hardfork of Britain, both of which now peacefully coexist.) Therefore, why waste energy trying to tear each other down? It’s important to let everyone go their separate ways, and let the tech speak for itself.
The only issue that I think requires more debate is that of the Bitcoin brand. It’s tough to say that it’ll be awarded to whichever chain “wins” in the end - that’s not really possible. Obviously, it holds a lot of sway in the media (who seem to only ever talk about crypto when it’ll bring them more pageviews) and elsewhere. The average newcomer to Bitcoin today buys it only on the name, because they think it’ll make them a lot of money - the issue of blocksize is probably a completely alien subject to them. They probably won’t care what becomes of Bitcoin long-term, as long as, when they swap back over to their fiat of choice, it’s a bigger number than they put in. Even by simply saying that the branding issue isn’t something I want to voice an opinion on, I’ll make enemies with a significant portion of readers - those that argue there’s a simple answer, and it’s already built in. Just keep in mind that I’m not barring that solution, I just don’t want to talk about it, period.
Full Disclosure and Side Notes
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care about the price of my crypto holdings in USD, or that I didn’t have a preference for future development. I considered posting this under a pseudonym, in order to obscure such things, but felt that it was hypocritical to argue that people should be allowed to have their own opinions, and then pretend that I didn’t have any of my own. Hopefully that doesn’t detract from the point(s) of what I’m saying here.
Initially, I set out to write only that we shouldn’t care about what Satoshi would think, but this evolved into far more than that. (I still have a bunch more things that I definitely want to express my opinion on, but think I’ve digressed enough already.) As a result, there isn’t really a clear, singular point to this (article?) (piece?). Sorry.