The market keeps talking

Source: ElBitcoin Original Title: The Market Keeps Speaking Original Link:

I used to listen to Majamalu talk about what was happening in Bitcoin-BTC forums: the posts and messages deleted, the systematic blocking of users, insults, etc. From his statements, I inferred that these spaces had become subsidiaries of a sort of sect. I found it hard to believe 100% what he told me until I decided to join a Facebook group to leave an opinion: all I did was point out, without disrespecting anyone, the reasons why I believed Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is better than Bitcoin-BTC.

Majamalu had already warned me about what I could expect, and I must say he was right. I received a deluge of responses, almost all containing mockery and insults. But not all. The only argument they presented was a striking one: “the market has already spoken.” They implied that, due to the large difference between the price of bitcoin-BTC and bitcoin-BCH, people had already decided in a free market which one was better.

It is true that in the world of cryptocurrencies there are no impositions and everyone can choose freely. That said, I believe it’s worth clarifying something that blind BTC enthusiasts insist on ignoring. The vast majority of people are still trying to understand what cryptocurrencies are, how they work, how they are issued, what advantages they have over alternatives, etc. They were created recently and, like all revolutionary innovation, generate skepticism and many, many questions.

But those who allow themselves to doubt and research patiently tend to be the ones who eventually reap the rewards, just like those who got involved from the beginning. These pioneers were labeled naive or delusional, if not criminals, while “specialists” predicted the imminent extinction of Bitcoin.

Those who mocked bitcoiners at first, pointing to the limited transient value of the cryptocurrency or the spectacular drops in its price, are today the ones mocking those of us criticizing the negative change that occurred in BTC, and they do so using the same arguments that supporters of fiat money and central banks used to employ.

We used to defend BTC against attacks coming from all sides. We did so because we understood its advantages and believed that this currency had the potential to compete with fiat money, not to prop it up as today’s BTC supporters propose. For us, the existence of a form of electronic peer-to-peer cash is essential to put limits on the expansion of state power. That’s why we have fought from the beginning.

However, it’s necessary to reiterate the question: Would BTC have taken off as a project if Satoshi Nakamoto’s proposal had been what today’s BTC supporters advocate? That is, if a cryptocurrency had been created with extremely high fees to force people to use it as a store of value or to perform only transactions of thousands or millions of dollars; or if it had been presented as an alternative to make transactions as slow or slower than banking; or if sending bitcoins at a lower cost required intermediaries; or if its promoters invited us to continue using fiat money for almost all our transactions… What would have happened?

Entering the current BTC world, one gets the feeling that many of its members arrived late to the crypto ecosystem and invested in BTC without really knowing what they were doing, and without basic economic knowledge. And since the increase in BTC’s price doesn’t promote reflection among these investors, they react defensively to anything that might force them to reconsider their decisions, such as BCH, which still keeps Satoshi Nakamoto’s project alive.

Claiming that the market “spoke” is nonsense. The market is speaking all the time; nothing is final for the market. Anyone who believes there’s no turning back, that nothing will change, either doesn’t understand how economics works or is trying to make a (bad) defense of their investment.

This can be exemplified with the competition between WhatsApp and other messaging apps. I remember years ago, when only text messages could be sent via WhatsApp, other apps also offered voice messages and even video calls. But, as they say, the first to strike hits twice. The market, which as I mentioned earlier is constantly speaking, could also have punished WhatsApp if it hadn’t progressed, which is why the company improved its service. In fact, recently, concerns about WhatsApp’s privacy were capitalized on by other companies in the sector, like Signal and Telegram, which achieved unprecedented visibility and a surprising increase in users in a very short period of time.

And consumer punishment could even be more severe in the future, since the market has not finished speaking and never will. WhatsApp decided to take matters into its own hands, improved its service first, then provided explanations to try to clarify the privacy issue. BTC developers do the opposite: they continue on the same path proudly, and assure us that this is just the beginning; that fees will keep increasing and that we should celebrate it.

Meanwhile, the market keeps speaking, even if they want to silence it.