Thread by @gladstein

1/ This clip of @garrytan on Bloomberg is well worth watching because it shows *exactly* how Silicon Valley investors like him either fail to understand or feel threatened by Bitcoin 🧵

2/ Garry is obsessed with dollar profits. In 7 minutes he doesn’t mention improving the world around him a single time. He instead talks about DeFi’s year-over-year returns and NFT sales. In this context says that it’s “unbelievable” that Bitcoin maximalism is still alive in 2021

3/ Garry doesn’t understand (or maybe realizes but hates) that Bitcoin is about separating money from state, giving people financial freedom, and ending insider monetary deals and central banking. BTC isn’t about making a trade in dollar terms, it’s about replacing the dollar.

4/ Garry describes Bitcoin maximalists as “religious” — a point that he hammers throughout the interview. This is a frequent altcoiner tactic to try and shun people who choose to work on Bitcoin-only for philosophical reasons as being somehow crazy, fringe, stupid, or inadequate.

5/ The great irony of course is that you can run Bitcoin at home cheaply with zero faith. You can verify everything with your own node. With every other cryptocurrency you must have faith in the administrators of that system. You must hope they make good decisions.

6/ This is especially apparent with Ethereum, which currently has an unknown monetary policy. It is unclear how much ETH will be minted in 2023, for instance. Investors in the project must have faith that the admins will do a good job and choose the right issuance.

7/ Garry is accurate, however, when he makes the point that Ethereum is “more like a company” than Bitcoin. This makes sense as Ethereum has an official foundation and a massive premine which went to early investors in the project. Its creators have massive stakes and influence.

8/ Next Garry pushes a falsehood popular among altcoin promoters: that “Bitcoin doesn’t change” — But all one needs to do is read the Optech newsletter to see the dizzying array of change that is happening in the Bitcoin ecosystem each week:

bitcoinops.org

9/ Altcoiners like to say Bitcoin doesn’t change as it helps them promote their own projects, which can change much more easily on a centralized whim. Of course, major updates to Bitcoin can take years, but they happen routinely. For example, Taproot will activate in a few months

10/ If Garry actually *used* Bitcoin he would know how rapid the change is. There are wallets today that do things that were impossible even just 18 months ago: CoinJoin on an iPhone, for example, or super-slick non-custodial Lightning payments.

11/ Garry next mentions the proposed Warner amendment to the Senate infrastructure bill. He was very upset by it and says that it’s very important for Americans to protect Proof-of-Stake systems. While I agree it is of paramount importance to protect all software developers...

12/ The thing is, our current financial system is Proof-of-Stake and it is broken beyond repair.

It is exclusionary and elitist. It permits investors like Garry to back projects that are forbidden for the average American. Bitcoin was invented as a new financial foundation.

13/ If anything, Bitcoin’s commitment to free speech, property rights, individual freedom, and open markets is *much more American* than any centrally-planned Proof-of-Stake system:

bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/bitcoi…

14/ Next Garry attacks @jack, calling him an “adherent” of the Bitcoin religion. He again tries to paint Jack and other Bitcoiners as zealots, again not disclosing that other cryptocurrencies require enormous amounts of faith from users to operate.

15/ Garry is “surprised” that Jack takes a Bitcoin-only approach.

The irony is Garry would have *zero* problem if Jack was out there shilling scam coins like most of Silicon Valley.

He’s only upset because Jack is Bitcoin focused. This is worth reflecting on.

16/ Next Garry refers to Ethereum as “totally decentralized” — a huge falsehood and very misleading.

But I guess it works for his agenda.

17/ Garry then goes back to attacking Jack, saying that Jack “feels threatened” by Ethereum.

If that’s the case, Garry, then why isn’t Jack on TV bashing Ethereum?

Why are you on TV bashing Bitcoin?

18/ Next, though, more credit to Garry, for questioning claims that EIP-1559 makes ETH “ultrasound money” —soundness derives from the unchanging nature of money, not from constant tinkering. This, at least, he gets.

19/ In sum, this video is important because it contains the attacks that will continue to be directed at the Bitcoin community from Silicon Valley investors bent on making fortunes with new digital currencies that they can mint and control and manipulate.

20/ The Cantillon Effect, where those closest to the money spigot get the most benefits, is a powerful force in cryptocurrencies outside of Bitcoin, and Garry knows this. He’s made a killing off Ethereum and other coins, and will continue to do so.

21/ It remains critical to have these conversations, to remind the world that Bitcoin is not a company, not a stock, not a trade to get more dollars — but a way to reshape the system so that insiders like Garry don’t have an advantage over everyone else anymore.