The market continues to voice its opinions: In-depth thoughts on the development direction of Bitcoin.

Source: ElBitcoin Original Title: The market keeps talking Original Link:

I once heard Majamalu talk about what happened in the Bitcoin forum: posts being deleted, users being systematically banned, insults, and so on. From his statements, it seems that these spaces have become some sort of affiliate of a religious branch. I found it hard to fully believe what he said until I decided to express my opinion in a Facebook group: all I did was point out, with all due respect, that I think Bitcoin Cash(BCH) is a better reason than Bitcoin(BTC).

Majamalu has already warned me about what would happen, and I must say he was right. I received a series of replies, almost all of which contained mockery and insults. But not all. The only argument they presented was striking: “The market has spoken.” They implied that due to the huge difference between BTC and BCH prices, people have already chosen which is better in the free market.

Indeed, there is no compulsion in the world of cryptocurrency, and everyone is free to choose. That said, I think it is necessary to clarify some things that many BTC zealots insist on ignoring. The vast majority of people are still trying to understand what cryptocurrency is, how it works, how it is issued, what advantages it has over alternatives, and so on. They have not been around for long, and like all revolutionary innovations, they raise skepticism and many questions.

But those who allow themselves to doubt and patiently research are often the ones who reap the rewards in the long run, just like those who deeply understand the subject from the very beginning. These pioneers were often labeled as naive or crazy, and sometimes even called criminals, while the “experts” predicted that Bitcoin would soon disappear.

Those who mocked bitcoiners in the beginning, pointing to the insignificant value of cryptocurrencies or the sharp decline in their prices, are now mocking those who criticize the negative changes occurring in BTC. The arguments they use are similar to those often used by supporters of fiat currencies and central banks in the past.

We used to often protect BTC from attacks from all sides. We did this because we understood its advantages and believed that this currency has the potential to compete with fiat currencies, rather than being supported as proposed by today's BTC advocates. For us, the existence of a form of p2p electronic cash is essential to limit the expansion of state power. This is what we have been fighting for from the very beginning.

However, it is necessary to reiterate the question raised by Majamalu in an episode of the podcast: If Satoshi Nakamoto's proposal is as the current BTC supporters suggest, would BTC take off as a project? In other words, what would happen if a cryptocurrency were created with extremely high fees, forcing people to use it as a store of value or to conduct transactions of only thousands or millions of dollars; or if it were proposed as an alternative to transactions that are as slow or slower than those with banks; or if it required the help of intermediaries to send Bitcoin at a lower cost; or if its promoters invited us to continue using fiat currency for almost all transactions…?

When entering the current world of BTC, people feel that many members joined the crypto ecosystem late, and they do not fully understand what they are doing when investing in BTC, lacking even a basic concept of economics. Since the rise in BTC prices does not encourage such investors to reflect, they tend to adopt a defensive attitude towards anything that might force them to reconsider their decisions, such as BCH, which still maintains the vitality of the Satoshi Nakamoto project.

It is foolish to say that the market has “spoken.” The market has always been talking; nothing in the market is final. Those who believe there is no turning back, that nothing will change, either do not understand how the economy works or are trying to (poorly) defend their investments.

This point can be illustrated by the competition between WhatsApp and other messaging applications. I remember years ago, when text messages could only be sent via WhatsApp, other applications also offered voice messages and even video calls. But as they say, the early bird catches the worm. The talking market, as I mentioned before, might have punished WhatsApp for not progressing, which is why the company improved its services. In fact, recently, concerns about the privacy offered by WhatsApp were exploited by other companies in the field like Signal and Telegram, which gained unimaginable visibility and astonishing user growth in a very short time.

Consumer penalties may become more severe in the future, as the market has not stopped speaking and will never stop. WhatsApp has decided to take action, first improving its services and then providing explanations to try to clarify privacy issues. The developers of BTC did the exact opposite: they continue down the same path, full of pride, and assure us that this is just the beginning; fees will continue to rise, and we should celebrate this.

Meanwhile, the market is still speaking, even though they want it to be silent.