In the first part of this series, Greg introduced the important sociological functions that rituals and myths play in culture: helping to achieve and maintain cohesive values, but also teaching, perpetuating, and even formulating cultural norms.
Greg then connected the dots with the dynamics we’ve witnessed ‘happening in less than one generation with the proudly toxic and highly rigid BTC maximalist subculture of diamond hand and HODL memes.’
In this edition, Greg focuses on the illogical mythos of BTC Maximalists’ narrative.
Manipulating populations to control narratives
As a variety of leaks around online psyops will confirm, one can posit that among certain groups it is well-understood how to manipulate sociological and anthropological tendencies and cognitive biases to form an identity around a psychologically appealing ideology to control narratives and populations by discrediting contrary facts and making counterfactual claims seem credible and widely accepted.
The BTC narrative – an illogical mythos
One does not have to look long in any online forum to spot these techniques in wide use to promote a BTC-centric view of blockchain and digital currency. It is furthermore informative to understand the how and why of these narratives and, and those who either knowingly or unknowingly promulgate illogical mythos.
The main organising principles of the BTC maxi culture
Ostensibly BTC’s highest value is Freedom with a capital F, while its highest goal is to achieve that through a decentralised monetary supply that can not be controlled by a state sponsor or a private central bank so that savings can not be inflated away and spending can not be tracked or controlled.
The maximalist further believes that BTC can and should be the only blockchain and cryptocurrency and will thus absorb a large percentage of the world’s wealth, driving its total value and market capitalization astronomically high.
Since this is the best way to grow freedom, it is ethically and morally wrong to oppose BTC maximalism and dilute the network effect around it. Once the moral and ethical high ground has been seized in one’s estimation, it is easier to dehumanise dissenters and take an end justifies the means approach.
BTC’s narrative vs Bitcoin white paper
The idea of anonymous Internet money that is used without any accountability appeals to a wide swath of the ideologically inclined that favour individual over state action but is noticeably absent from the white paper that defines Bitcoin.
The Bitcoin white paper demonstrates that the immutable ledger can be built with economic protections of privacy and pseudonymity. Anonymous participation with firewalled identity is possible but not presented as essential or even desirable, with protections built on the difficulty, not impossibility, of solving technical and mathematical challenges.
Crypto-anarchists, criminals and anti-scalers
The white paper never once promotes or advocates anonymity. Even so, the draw of easy and standardised anonymity is especially appealing to those inclined to reject societal judgements on morality and ethics as enshrined in law, and those most distrustful of state power find the lure of true anonymity so powerful that they read it in.
This gives us two sides of the culture-makers for BTC maximalism: Crypto-anarchists who wish to evade surveillance, and criminals who want to avoid prison.
There is a third side of the culture-makers for BTC maximalism, and it has driven the development of the key myths that make BTC, technically, what it is, who I would call the anti-scalars, who say it is not useful, in fact, it is bad and actively harmful to grow the ability of bitcoin to handle more transactions at layer one where one maximises the benefits of the immutable ledger.
One can see these arguments coming early from certain individuals who came sidling up to the project as it began to gain steam. Their goals tend to match exactly what you would expect from legacy economic infrastructure players if they wanted to avoid competition from Bitcoin; limit block size, have high transaction costs, Bitcoin as an appreciating asset and not a usable currency to absorb and not relinquish liquidity.
The bait and switch of anti-scalers
Interestingly, another data point is that this narrative shifted in a highly illogical way that received little scrutiny, and with interesting timing. Now it actually *is* okay to use Bitcoin as a currency for small, casual payments using a layer 2 network.
The timeline of the evolution of these arguments (from ‘digital gold’ that should never be sold and used – except for high-value wealth transfers – to a narrative that now it is okay to use for casual payments on untraceable layer 2 networks) matches exactly the development and rollout of the proprietary Lightening Network. This makes for an interesting coincidence at the very least. One could plausibly make the case that this is an example of a carefully crafted narrative pushed from the priestly caste serving their own ends onto a compliant subculture who have sacrificed individuality for a sense of belonging to the group and its shared mission and values.
The dual sociological and economic magnet of BTC maximalism
The BTC maximalist sub-culture has interestingly pulled many who are individualists by nature into strident groupthink and a unique brand of collectivism, where one adopts the group positions without question or examination. For example, in Granath v. Wright, when asked how he reached his position on the central question of the validity of Dr Wright’s claims, he states he never looked into it. Yet he proudly and publicly proclaimed derogatory information. He led a public bullying charge against a man with autism that was not long before suicidal because it was the mythos of his effectively closed society.
In the short term, he was socially rewarded. In the longer term, there was the promise of monetary reward, either directly from the enemies of scalable Bitcoin (one such connected entity he is now employed by) or indirectly when another prophetic myth of BTC maximalism is proven and BTC goes to the moon against state-backed currencies.
This dual sociological and economic magnet that provides a sense of belonging alongside the economic appeal to greed powerfully nails adherents into the group identity and a veritable jihad against competing philosophies.
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Greg Bledsoe has made a career of jumping on the right bandwagon at the right time and has a 100% success rate. Starting with open source, to cybersecurity, to DevOps, business agility, blockchain and BSV – he’s invested in the right things at the right time to arrive at this apex moment of history. A recognized thought leader in next-generation business, he now writes on blockchain technology and the BSV blockchain ecosystem.
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