My buddy Harry Sudock has a wager with Danny Knowles of What Bitcoin Did fame concerning the prospect of a 50 BTC block reward on this new epoch. Placing apart a few fats fingers, the final time this occurred was over 4000 days in the past.
Late final Friday night time, his guess virtually hit on the very first halving block, a 40.751 BTC stunner.
Paradoxically, miners have been the large winners at this flip of the epoch, netting simply over 100 million {dollars} in complete income on the day — virtually 5 occasions the earlier all-time excessive.
The times across the halving, visualized as block payment charges.https://t.co/FP3PfGHAiB pic.twitter.com/xcS22GPw79
— softsimon (@softsimon_) April 21, 2024
Past the numbers, this time felt totally different. Whereas the halving is normally a reminder of Bitcoin’s reliability, this 12 months’s occasion was something however predictable. On and off-chain, vital narratives converged and culminated in an unprecedented climax. I wasn’t there for the primary halving however the earlier two occasions appeared inconsequential. Someway, block 840,000 felt prefer it ushered in a brand new period.
Culturally, Bitcoin seems to be closing in on escape velocity. 4 years in the past, you’ll’ve been hard-pressed to discover a Bitcoiner who didn’t rally below the maximalism flag. Sizzling off the heels of the blocksize struggle and a brutal bear market, orthodoxy reigned supreme.
At this time, the panorama is unrecognizable. Piety is overtly mocked and a lot of the excessive clergymen have been exiled. Apostasy is trending. We’ve damaged out of the insular mould — everyone seems to be a Bitcoiner.
Cash for enemies
After all, with the dominant cultural establishment having fallen, the barbarians are on the door. The holy blockchain is being pillaged and no Bitcoin node is secure. On the danger of utilizing one more analogy, it’s a real Berlin Wall second. Speculative mercenaries have crossed over they usually’re discovering the place fairly comfortable. Ordinals, BRC20s, Runes. It’s a degen world and we’re all dwelling in it.
As anticipated, this defacing of Bitcoin’s sanctity isn’t sitting nicely with the previous guard. They’ve been busy denouncing this habits, adamant that heretics needs to be filtered ostracized. “Bitcoin should not be related to scams.” Thumping their bible, they’ve seemingly little regard for the permissionless beliefs of the system. Sinners ought to repent or burn in hell. Their tradition should prevail, lest Bitcoin has failed.
Not for the reason that Silk Highway has a Bitcoin use case been so broadly controversial. Blasphemous, I do know, however hardly shocking. The free market has a manner of exposing the hypocrisy of its most ardent proponents.
I empathize with the concept this rampant hypothesis is damaging for many of its contributors. Fiat has thrown the common particular person’s monetary incentives so out of whack that playing is now perceived as EV+. Memecoins are Gen Z’s lottery tickets and Bitcoin memecoins are the brand new meta.
If you happen to’ve devoted your life to freedom cash within the hope of distancing your self and your family members from this actual habits, it’s fairly miserable to see it rear its ugly head in your turf. Certainly, those that search to create worth ought to hate nothing greater than to see others throw it down the drain. Then again, Bitcoin makes no such ethical or moral judgment. Salvation isn’t promised or anticipated from anybody who adopts it. It’s each for the perfect of us, and the worst.
The scaling fumble
The halving additionally put a highlight on Bitcoin’s awkward technological state. Until you have been among the many privileged few with current Lightning liquidity, Bitcoin was virtually unusable as a cost technique over the weekend. You’ll be able to think about the dunk fest on Twitter when it was prompt LN nodes disable routing to keep away from pricey drive closures.
I received’t faux there may be a simple manner out of this predicament. Certain, we are able to bury our heads within the sand and faux the present exercise is unsustainable. We are able to circlejerk about UTXO and channel administration.
An alternative choice is to meet customers the place they’re. Drop the ideological vanity and settle for that sure tradeoffs are acceptable, if not crucial, to construct a worldwide and dependable cost system. It’s a troublesome capsule to swallow however trust-based options are each viable and, for all intents and functions, in all probability superior to the gymnastics at the moment required by “trustless” options.
Because of this I select to stay optimistic concerning the street forward. The progress round ecash mints is awe-inspiring if you happen to ask me. It permits us to leverage Lightning’s energy whereas addressing the last-mile downside that has plagued it. It opens up a world of prospects for builders to enhance on current custodial options and get them out of the silos they at the moment function in.
In the meantime, we are able to proceed engaged on extra formidable proposals and try to cut back or take away belief assumptions. Bitcoin’s properties shouldn’t be simply conceded for the sake of mass adoption. That stated, the satan is within the particulars and complexity typically comes on the expense of person expertise. Not all funds are the identical and likely shouldn’t be burdened with the price of on-chain censorship resistance.
Not less than from a technical perspective, that is no Bitcoin renaissance. It’s extra of a case of the whole lot previous is new once more.
From Satoshi Cube to Magic Eden.
From Counterparty to Runes.
From Digicash to Fedimints.
We’ve seen this story earlier than besides this time IS totally different.
This time we now have to foot the invoice for our success and the hubris that got here with it.
We are able to’t afford to be cute anymore. This time we’re going to need to do even higher.
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