Part 1: Odell vs Saylor
It was only last week, exact date and time unknown given how well protected is the individual data.
A Nostr client and Cypherpunk going by ODELL, unleashed a seething post from the depths of his (well curated?) Post Office.
The post started by saying it was not controversial, in capital letters.
Then proceeded to say something controversial.
This in addition to other, capital-lettered posts.
In brief, Odell claims that Michael Saylor, a very prominent Bitcoin whale and renown hodler, is against the funding of Bitcoin developers.
Let Bitcoin “ossify”, believes Saylor (says people on his side). So the code can become something so usual humans sing it in an anthem.
Like, unchanged.
To Saylor (claims Odell), changing the code in the name of “maintenance” and “upgrades”, leaves BTC vulnerable.
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Meanwhile, Mr. Saylor hasn't said anything to either deny or verify the aforementioned claims nor sayings in his name.
The Advantage of Not funding Bitcoin developers
Aside from the snide remarks and memes on X comparing BTC Devs to busy bodies, the biggest threat of the ‘Dev Funding Race’ is the incentives it gives for fiat overlords to totally bulldoze Bitcoin into the shape and form that they want.
Currently, Bitcoin is still struggling and the price won't stopping dancing around $69k.
It is barely a trillion dollar asset.
And this value is heavily from coins being lost, hence mostly a supply and demand effect.
Not new, cool stuff being made in the Bitcoin space. Like smartphones.
Bitcoiners are yet to invent a BTC Smartphone.
Meanwhile, all the Bitcoin ETF companies combined are benchpressing upwards of $100 billion dollars, and they want to dangle all those carrots in front of our developers.
Evil.
Bitcoin developers have lived for years like the Fremen of Dune. Modestly quenching their financial thirst with drops of donated water-satoshis. Recycling each sat they get their hands on while leveraging more circularity than a hamster on a wheel.
Now, the promise of big money raining down on their well hodled skills is a big threat to the core code.
Like lawyers, they are itching to change the constitution.
But hey, what is a developer who does not develop new tools?
The devs in the wider cryptocurrency community must be cracking their ribs with laughter. And counting their lucky altcoins, grateful for the fact that they can buidl.
What do you call a Developer who should not Develop?
A Watcher and Waiter.
But that is painful. And sounds like a fairy tale.
Honestly, developing is a form of free speech. So no one can actually stop developers from speaking their speech.
It is the highest form of individual autonomy known to humans in this digital age.
I dare say, if only we could all develop, this would not even be an issue.
However,
Bitcoin being what it is, a global community project of extreme importance, actually constrains hacker ethos so much there won't be any cypherpunks like the OGs.
Forget thumbing it to centralized systems anymore by engineering some arcane codex. Now it is a game of sitting and waiting and watching.
Wiating for fiat to let its grip off the economy's neck. So that honest investors can finally breathe.
Watching if Bitcoin is at $100k yet. And Watching if anybody wants to tamper with it before it is at that $100k.
Meanwhile, devs can go ahead writing blog articles about what they would do to improve BTC but NOT to build new tools.
Sometimes the price of freedom is to follow the majority. And the majority says just sit, wait and watch.