Thread by @matiwinnetou

I think it is worth to decompose this a bit.

Cardano (PoS) vs Bitcoin (ASIC PoW)

This will be rather in depth, complex but bear with me.
....

https://twitter.com/bitcoinpods/status/1445407889569587218

1. "Block production in Bitcoin is quite decentralized", This is NOT true, there are a few mining farms.

2. "Bitcoin is free and patent free", this is true for core BTC but Bitcoin mining is pretty much dominated by patented ASICs now

3. "Bitcoin is 100% decentralised development": no, of course not, in order to be a contributor you can open PR but there is a small group of people that merges this on or not. It is important to say there is no way to vote them out(!)

4. "Bitcoin doesn't have voting" - this is not true, it has voting but only mining companies are voting on proposals based on hash power they have. There is no way for holders of BTC to vote though, which is a serious flaw (cast based system).

5. "Bitcoin energy consumption favours 'free' green energy, e.g. solar, wind.

This is true in theory, in but in practise very few people have access to such energy and it is often not practical.

Wind and Solar is dominated by those that have larger plots or governments (El Sal.), at house you could actually have a mining rig but you also need electricity for your house and excess is expensive to store. What ends up happening is that during night you mine from power grid.

6. "PoS sucks because it is banking 2.0 - block production is for the richest". In Cardano at least we observe a constant small increase of blocks produced by various pools, therefore practically shown it is decentralising.

P. WITH DELEGATION AND BLOCKS:
datastudio.google.com/reporting/3136…

It is however true that if for instance a a0 param is raised then it would require significant capital to be able to have pledge and ultimately attract delegators seeking higher returns.

This is worrying only if you consider Cardano as a static system, it is a dynamic system.

While some richest SPOs without doubt want to increase a0 (in the name of good and stopping pool pooling) actually they most have high pledges and subconsciously or consciously are afraid and do this to dominate network production.

Dynamic system means it wants to further decentralise, we have Voltaire moving forward and Resources (1 to N) , in this respect core Bitcoin devs are not innovating at all, it considers this part done.

7. "Bitcoin mining is patent free and ASIC resistant". - this is an obvious lie, in fact this community doesn't try to fix this issue, both Ergo and Bitcoin Gold are ASIC resistant yet you don't year any of this discussion from this community, all you hear is S2F and when 100k?

8. "In Bitcoin block production is pure and comes from physical paid energy, nobody can just produce Bitcoin out of thin air, in PoS there is pre-mine".
First of all, the fact that it is not free doesn't mean it doesn't lead to centralisation (see patented ASICs)...

second of all in Cardano we don't believe @CardanoStiftung , @emurgo_io and @InputOutputHK got money to make themselves or founder: @IOHK_Charles rich, we believe that these funds will be used to boostrap the network and pay for initial high development cost, which can be later..

on paid by Cardano's on chain Treasury without relying on rich Billionaires or donations, which could corrupt the system. After Voltaire upgrade Cardano holders will become DAO capable of keeping existing development companies or changing them if needs be.

9. "Regarding pre-mine, point 8, dude this is not how blockchain works(!)"

This is true, we are not supposed to put trust in some organisation and while block production is 100% decentralized, development and network parameter setting is still centralized.
...

Since pre-mine is a hot topic, lets decompose it further. Now it really depends what you consider bootstrapping period, in case of Bitcoin it was first Satoshi with his mining (1 mln BTC), then he disappeared and then all hard-fork wars started. Are you 100% sure Satoshi...

won't touch his wallet back, isn't mining early on BTC just like pre-mine in PoS but he didn't even burn the coins, he just hodles them and people assume he won't touch them.

In Cardano we believe that this bootstrapping of Cardano is a longer process, it could take even up to 10 years, who knows. The thing is that it is very complex project with many variables and you cannot solve this in short amount of time. This risk is factored in by hodlers.

10. "@IOHK_Charles is a scammer" - there is no evidence of this, show us evidence and stop the madness please.

As you can see this is not a black and white situation, Bitcoin has many flaws and so does Cardano, both have risks profiles attached to them.

a. Will Bitcoin really lead to decentralised use of power?
b. Will 3 orgs. bootstrapping Cardano really use funds to bootstrap it?

c. Will big pool operators have already so much voting power that they will vote against hybrid consensus system for Cardano:

https://twitter.com/iohk_charles/status/1402305662936256515

?

Last but not least both systems try to solve different problem, it is apples and oranges comparison. Bitcoin wants to have some basic smart contracts on Layer 2, doesn't have native assets, eUTxO on L1, no voting system planned, etc.

People like @gladstein have way too much to say because they are not analysing this as scientists objectively with pros and cons, intellectually host, they analyse this in tribalistic fashion as bag holders. This is actually a very well known phenomena,

people being part of revolutions were not angels, often brought horrible alternative systems and lies.

All we asking is honesty because neither Cardano nor Bitcoin is heaven on earth in the current shape and form.

@threadreaderapp unroll

"People like @gladstein are given way too much credit because they are not analysing this as scientists objectively with pros and cons, intellectually honest, they analyse this in tribalistic fashion as bag holders. This is actually a very well known phenomena,"

While some richest SPOs without doubt want to increase a0 (in the name of good and stopping pool splitting) actually they most have high pledges and subconsciously or consciously are afraid and do this to dominate block production. - I meant...

When I hear said no voting system planned, what I meant is to change core Bitcoin developers and allow holders of BTC to vote as well (egalitarian and inclusive system).