npub12q…ypdx8 on Nostr: The block size wars meant that, in 2017 lots of smart devs & business owners left ...

The block size wars meant that, in 2017 lots of smart devs & business owners left Bitcoin maximalism for BCH, Ethereum & other cryptos

Some of the biggest names were gone: Gavin Andresen, Mike Hearn, Roger Ver

This power vacuum created an opportunity for some young guys to build a new Bitcoin culture, structure it as a top-down feudal structure (OG-pleb), and profit from it

Unfortunately, many of them were not the brightest, most competent, or most successful. But they were sociopathic enough to want to climb their way to the top and keep others down

NVK is a prime example: a nerd who wasn’t necessarily the best at anything, whose ideas couldn’t succeed on their own merit without politics and virtue signaling, but whose histrionic behavior was mistaken for confidence and competence

Similar examples are Jimmy Song (not a great dev, but somehow on every conference stage), Pierre Rochard (more of a priest than economist), Francis Pouliot (idealistic LARPer who built his business on virtue signaling), Giacomo Zucco (the jester who never practiced what he preached, but always got away with it), Peter McCormack (king of midwits, but with a charming British accent) and I can go on all day

The point is that under the previous Bitcoin environment, there was no room for these guys to shine. So in order to build their status and keep themselves at the top of the hierarchy, they created the church of Bitcoin maximalism and appointed themselves as high priests

This worked so well that even shameless shitcoiners like Max Keiser (look up Maxcoin, Startcoin & the numerous DASH endorsements) took notice and wanted to join the club

But to survive, churches need perpetual miracles and vindication. The biggest miracle is the price that goes up according to a mystical cycle. The vindication came when the lessons about self custody (learned during the Mt. Gox era) were also useful in 2021-2022 (Celsius, FTX, BlockFi)

2022 was the peak, though. Because these guys got greedy and felt jealous that the big blockers are making more money with the multi-coin diversification strategies. They missed out on DeFi summer. They missed out on the NFT mania. Virtue signaling doesn’t pay the bills.

So they started shilling the Coldcard more aggressively: because it followed the rules of the church and it made them money. They didn’t allow anyone to criticize it. Instead, they turned the Coldcard into the status symbol: the object that screams “I’m part of the toxic maximalist club. I don’t hold any other coins”.

Every church breaks when the miracles are gone, the vindications are hard to find, and the reality contradicts the dogma. That’s when the smart people read the room and start taking action to protect themselves from a disastrous outcome.

But the consequence is that only the dumbest people stick around. Because to them, loyalty to the cult is everything and reason must be stopped if it contradicts the teachings.

The biggest problem here is that markets are fast to reveal useful information. They aren’t always an oracle of truth: but they bring up patterns, trends, and expose lies.

As soon as it became inexpensive to verify security code, the Coldcard went belly up. The cash cow of every hollier than thou influencer ran dry, leaving behind the kind of pain and resentment that hurts much more than exchange rug pulls and bad trades.

I think that this incident will wipe out an entire class of influencers and businessmen. But if the church has enough leverage, it will try to save the reputations of the high priests and carry on.

The only problem? The average IQ of the toxic maximalist church follower will go even lower. Only the dumbest guys will stick around. Everyone else will figure out ways to move on.