Day: December 3, 2024

Want Another Bitcoin Country? Do Something About It.

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Follow Frank on X. Bitcoin is its own network state, to borrow a term from Balaji Srinivasan. That is, while Bitcoin proponents aren’t bound to one geographical region (quite the opposite, actually) they have collective power and can enact change. We just saw some version of this power exercised in the U.S. political sphere, as the Bitcoin (and crypto) lobby fiercely supported pro-Bitcoin candidates in the recent U.S. election cycle. Because this lobby was so strong, many pro-Bitcoin candidates were elected or re-elected into positions of power. One could argue…

Why Bother Trying To Scale Bitcoin?

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The public discussion around scaling in the last few years has become poisoned and captured by an incredibly toxic and defeatist attitude: “Why bother?” “Why bother trying to scale? Basic napkin math shows it’s impossible no matter what we do for everyone to self custody.” “Why bother trying to scale? People are stupid and lazy anyway, even if we did people would just use a custodian anyways.” “Why bother trying to scale? I’ve got mine, I’ll be rich enough for self custody, who cares about the stupid and lazy plebs…

Is Bitcoin Self-Custody Under Threat in Europe?

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For centuries, self-custody has symbolized financial autonomy, enabling individuals to secure their wealth—from gold to cash—without intermediaries. Bitcoin extends this principle into the digital realm, offering a censorship-resistant, decentralized way to hold assets. Yet, upcoming European regulations under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) and the Transfer of Funds Regulation (TFR) threaten to complicate self-custody for Bitcoin users. A New Regulatory Era MiCA, adopted in April 2023, aims to regulate crypto-assets comprehensively in the EU. The revised TFR applies the “Travel Rule” to Bitcoin transactions, requiring detailed sender and recipient…

The lack of soft forks is due to a lack of interest— not a lack of process

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Follow Aaron on Nostr or X. As I explained in a Take two weeks ago, I think the threat (or promise, depending on your perspective) of protocol ossification is somewhat exaggerated, at least at this point in time. Yes, the rate of soft forks has slowed down significantly over the years, the last one having been Taproot in 2021. But it seems this has more to do with a lack of interest in the potential upgrades that’ve been proposed since then, rather than it being due to the lack of a…