Today is my last day with @Blockstream. It's been a grand adventure working with @adam3us for the last 5 years and together we've accomplished a great deal from sidechains, to mining, to satellites. So what’s next? I plan to focus on nation-state #Bitcoin adoption! 🍊💊🌎
Blockstream will continue to be a critical part of #Bitcoin infrastructure development & Layer 2 scaling tech like @Liquid_BTC & Lightning. I’m grateful to have had a hand in bringing so many products/services to market, and though I’m leaving, I’ll still be a #BlockstreamSpy. 🕵🏻♂️
I’ll still continue to support and advocate for @Liquid_BTC as I believe it has an important role to play in the reformation of the legacy financial system. Maybe some of you don’t know, but I joined Liquid while COO of the BTCChina exchange - long before I was at Blockstream. 🌊
With everything happening at light speed in El Salvador, and more and more countries interested in adopting #Bitcoin, I found my time each day just no longer enough anymore. Also, as @InfiniteFleet nears Beta, more of my attention is being demanded by the @Pixelmatic team.
So with @Blockstream in a very good place and well capitalized after a successful B round, it was the right time to move on. It also feels like now is a pivotal point in #Bitcoin’s evolution - we’re on the verge of mass adoption, and I think that I can make it happen faster. 🚀
So that’s it! I’ll miss working with @adam3us and everyone at Blockstream, but we’ll still be moving towards the same goals. To the moon! 🌜
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The #UASF was a defining event of #Bitcoin. 2 years later we may forget what the movement looked like early on. It was never a sure thing. Many people were confused & felt powerless in the face of what looked like massive support for a forced protocol change (NYA/#SegWit2x).
In fact many thought that #Bitcoin was over as we knew it. How could anyone (or any group) go up against such an overwhelming amount of hashrate and corporate backing? It looked like an impossible battle. But Bitcoin and Bitcoiners exist for impossible battles. #RememberTheUASF
All revolutionary movements start small. People started to organize & coordinate. Code was written. Memes were made. Hats were manufactured. Momentum started to build. Eventually the #UASF won the day. It was never a sure thing but we were 100% committed and that’s what mattered.
Let's ignore the funny parts for now, like "we're really really a non-profit because we'll figure out how to make less money later" or "we want to keep America competitive by setting up shop in Switzerland."
The crux of the issue is that Marcus has no idea what he is building, while also conflating FOSS with open permissionless systems. @Libra_ can't be everything for everyone, and it can't be both open and closed at the same time.
1/ The reason people are confused about what's going on and can't find the trail is simply because @TheBlueMatt is being dramatic. I wasn't going respond directly because it's so stupid, but it would be worse to not clarify and invite speculation. 🤦♂️ #BitcoinDrama
2/ By making a massive deal out of blocking me (Matt, you couldn’t just write it, but had to take a screenshot of Twitter UI showing the block - which is literally TEXT in a blue bar), people are wondering if I kicked his dog or worse. Now there’s a CoinDesk article. Geez.
3/ The starting point was this thread from @nwoodfine
. TL;DR: #Bitcoin is very important, attracts scammers and frauds, & a culture has evolved to defend against bad actors / attacks. He went on to say if you can't accept that culture then too bad.
Just for fun I'm going to answer one of the brand new accounts spreading FUD about the #LiquidNetwork. Liquid is an inter-exchange settlement network - that means it's for exchanges, OTCs, traders, market makers etc. L-BTC isn't for putting into cold storage for your descendants.
Liquid is designed to solve a problem: moving large amounts of BTC very fast and reliably. On-chain transactions are prone to variance and exchanges typically require more than 1 confirmation, so full settlement can take an hour or more. Full settlement in L-BTC is minutes.
Bitcoin is trustless and permissionless. Corrrect! Liquid sits on top of Bitcoin and uses a distributed trust model. If you're a trader (remember what Liquid is for) you trust the exchange with custody of your coins while trading - so now you trust a federation of exchanges.