The Foundation of Bitcoin Maximalism

wheelchairjuice (33)in #bitcoin • 6 years ago

There's very little journalism in the world, and even less when it comes to cryptocurrencies. This page is a breakdown of many concepts responsible for the foundation of true Bitcoin Maximalism.

The first few sections are pulling directly from the original Bitcoin white paper.

The Promise of Bitcoin

Bitcoin Maximalism is the response to some of the following examples:

Bitcoin constantly being conflated with technologies antithetical to how it works and why it works.
Networks not implementing Proof-of-Work being called blockchain.
Distributed databases being labeled blockchain.

Let's look into the actual design of the world's first blockchain as described by Satoshi Nakamoto.

"What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party."

An electronic payment system.
- By design, blockchain is a payment system.
Based on cryptographic proof.
- By design, blockchain requires cryptography to prove the truth.
Absent of 3rd-party trust.
- By design, blockchain enables trustless exchange.

"Transactions that are computationally impractical to reverse would protect sellers from fraud, and routine escrow mechanisms could easily be implemented to protect buyers."

Computationally impractical to reverse.
- By design, blockchain reversal would be costly or virtually impossible.
Protect sellers from fraud.
- By design, blockchain prevents fraudulent chargebacks (forced refunds)
Possibility of escrow.
- By design, blockchain has mechanisms to enable escrow. (ie. multisignature)

"In this paper, we propose a solution to the double-spending problem using a peer-to-peer distributed timestamp server to generate computational proof of the chronological order of transactions."

Peer-to-Peer (P2P).
- By design, blockchain is a P2P network.
Distributed timestamp server.
- By design, blockchain is a distributed timestamp server.
Computational proof of history.
- By design, blockchain is used to "generate computational proof of the chronological order of transactions"

"The system is secure as long as honest nodes collectively control more CPU power than any cooperating group of attacker nodes."

Security
- By design, blockchain requires more powerful honest nodes than dishonest nodes.

The Concerns of Bitcoin

"Commerce on the Internet has come to rely almost exclusively on financial institutions serving as trusted third parties to process electronic payments."

"Completely non-reversible transactions are not really possible, since financial institutions cannot avoid mediating disputes."

"The cost of mediation increases transaction costs, limiting the minimum practical transaction size and cutting off the possibility for small casual transactions, and there is a broader cost in the loss of ability to make non-reversible payments for non-reversible services."

" With the possibility of reversal, the need for trust spreads."

"Merchants must be wary of their customers, hassling them for more information than they would otherwise need."

"A certain percentage of fraud is accepted as unavoidable."

"These costs and payment uncertainties can be avoided in person by using physical currency, but no mechanism exists to make payments over a communications channel without a trusted party."

This frustration has resulted in a solution that would eventually develop into a mindset. The mindset of the movement behind Bitcoin is mostly about answering questions of personal freedom with digital technology. Many supporters of Bitcoin often find themselves having to defend the concept itself because 'journalists', scam artists, and cults of personality have done all but educate people on what Bitcoin actually is.

Enter Maximalism

Like it or not, most of what you've heard about blockchain is bullshit. This section is going to point some concerns out.

Proof-of-Work is the backbone of this breakthrough payment network technology.

Question:

If Proof-of-Work is the breakthrough known as blockchain, how can these software projects claim to implement and leverage a blockchain that doesn't have Proof-of-Work?

Answer:

Because it's not really blockchain.

Some popular 'blockchains' [1] that don't use Proof-of-Work

Cardano (ADA)
OmiseGo (OMG)
DigitalCash (DASH)
Wanchain (WAN)
QTUM (QTUM)
DeepOnion (ONION)
Decred (DCR)
BlackCoin (BLK)
Private Instant Verified Transaction (PIVX)
StorjCoin (SJCX)
Bitshares (BTS)
Ardor (ARDR)
ContentBox (BOX)
ECC (ECC)
Aeternity (AE)
Particl (PART)
Emercoin (EMC)
Quantum Resistant Ledger (QRL)
The Hempcoin (THC)
Electra (ECA)
NPER (NPER)
ShadowCash (SDC)
NuBits (NBT)

An electronic payment system.

As we know from the white paper, the promise of blockchain is to provide an electronic payment system. This section is about things that have nothing to do with electronic payments but claim blockchain use or potential use.

Question:

If blockchain was invented for electronic payments, why are people selling blockchain as a solution to things that don't require payment?

Answer:

They're mostly looking for funding and are in desperate need of a distributed database.
If what they're building can be built without a blockchain, it's a scam.

Oct 4, 2016 - IBM Invests $200 Million in Blockchain-Powered IoT
[9]

May 30, 2016 - Du to use blockchain for health records
[10]

Sep 5, 2018 - Twitter Is Thinking Over Blockchain Technology, CEO Jack Dorsey Tells Congress
[11]

Mar 5, 2017 - The World's Largest Shipping Firm Now Tracks Cargo on Blockchain
[12]

Aug 22, 2017 - Walmart, Kroger & Nestle Team with IBM Blockchain to Fight Food Poisoning
[13]

Sep 6, 2018 - IBM Makes Another Blockchain Identity Play With Health Data App
[14]

May 25, 2016 - Blockchain Startup Develops Identity App with Major Airline IT Firm
[15]

Peer-to-Peer and 3rd-party issues

As we know from the white paper, the promise of blockchain is to be a P2P system that doesn't depend on 3rd-party trust to transact.

Question:

What are some important characteristics of P2P systems?

Answer:

High degree of decentralization. The peers implement both client and server functionality... [20]

Self-organization... little or no manual configuration is needed to maintain the system...[20]

Multiple administrative domains. The participating nodes are not owned and controlled by a single organization... [20]

Resilience to faults and attacks. P2P systems tend to be resilient to faults because there are few if any nodes that are critical to the system's operation... [20]

This might not surprise you...

Cryptocurrency research firm CryptoCompare released its annual Cryptoasset Taxonomy Report, and their findings reveal that only 16% of cryptocurrencies are fully decentralized. The remaining cryptocurrencies reviewed are either centralized, or only semi-decentralized, suggesting that the development team behind the projects have some leverage to influence the protocol underlying the asset. [16]

Ripple 'blockchain'

Questionable P2P setup.

... Ripple Protocol Consensus Algorithm (RPCA) provides a “default and trusted” list of 16 servers maintained by Ripple Labs that ultimately decide upon the validity of all transactions in the network... [17]

100% Premined token owned by a company.

Ripple Holds Most of The XRP [18]

When Ripple was founded, it created 100 billion XRP tokens of which 80 billion tokens were allocated to the company and 20 billion were given to the three founders. Here is an approximate breakdown of the distribution of those tokens [21]

Ripple can freeze balances and alter fees.

In February 2014, Ripple implemented the “balance freeze” feature, which it activated in August 2014. This allowed Ripple gateways to freeze or even confiscate coins from any user of its gateway, even without a valid signature for the transaction. [21]

...

Learn about authorized trust lines, which enable a currency issuer to limit who can hold its issued (non-XRP) currencies. [22]

From the Ripple documentation...

Learn about authorized trust lines, which enable a currency issuer to limit who can hold its issued (non-XRP) currencies. [22]

Freezes can suspend trading of issued currencies for compliance purposes. [22]

Currency issuers can charge a fee for transferring their issued currencies. [22]

NEO 'blockchain'

Questionable P2P setup.

NEO’s team currently sets the total validator count to be at 7 and they operate all 7 nodes. They have claimed to decentralize the network by placing validator nodes in different locations such as in a Swiss bunker and a Dutch telecommunications company’s (KPN) server farm. However, the NEO’s team still owns and operates these nodes, so it’s decentralization of location but still a centralization of control. This is a very important distinction. [19]

With the majority of Neo nodes controlled by the project’s inner circle, the blockchain is susceptible to interference, either directly or at the say-so of government officials. [23]

In its December monthly report, the Neo council spoke of plans to decentralize the network, explaining: “We want to have at least 3 nodes run by external parties…The initial phase of decentralization is planned as follows: 2 nodes will be run by City of Zion. 1 node will be run by the community and will be community funded (independent of CoZ). 2 nodes will be run by institutional for-profit companies with blockchain interest. 2 nodes will be run by the NEO Council.” [23]

NEM (possibly) 'blockchain'

Questionable P2P setup.

Due to the source code of the server software being closed. The developers claim that it will be open source soon but I haven't been able to find it on the official Github. More concerning, anything previously acknowledging that it's closed-source or the promise to open the source, has seen heavy editing to remove this fact. [24] Maybe it's just hosted somewhere else? Additionally the binary of the server software is obfuscated to presumably prevent decompilers from revealing how it works. [25]

Cardano 'blockchain'

Questionable P2P setup.

They own the nodes in a trusted node setup. This setup will allegedly be removed in the future. Until then, it's centralized. [26]

IOTA 'blockchain'

Questionable P2P setup.

Milestones: Milestone is a special transaction issued by a special node called Coordinator. The Coordinator is run by Iota Foundation, its main purpose is to protect the network until it grows strong enough to sustain against a large scale attack from those who own GPUs. Milestones set general direction for the tangle growth and do some kind of checkpointing. Transactions (in)directly referenced by milestones are considered as confirmed. [27]

Protecting sellers from fraud.

As we know from the white paper, the promise of blockchain is to protect sellers from fraud and to enable the possibility of escrow.

I don't want to spend too much time on this section because it should be self explanatory. I'm going to leave you with this dumb-as-fuck Tweet:

@zooko - The igotrobbed button would work only for a set number of confirmations after the transaction is initially posted. So, it is similar to how people today shouldn't deliver the goods until 10 confirmations (in Zcash). [28]

Because we all know that the person pressing the 'igotrobbed' button means that they've been robbed.

(insert kys.png)

Limited Supply

You don't have to be an economist to know that most things of value tend be scarce and or vital to daily life. I personally have a different value system, but majority of the world, for better or worse, values shit that most people will never need. Nobody really needs money but it's here to stay so hopefully we can agree that the limited supply is one of the key reasons why it's considered valuable. Unless the mining of a coin is incredibly hard, any coin with an unlimited supply probably won't remain valuable for too long.

Some 'currencies' with an unlimited supply [29]:

(ETH) Ethereum
(XLM) Stellar
(USDT) Tether (((( NOT A CRYPTO ))))
(XMR) Monero
(ETC) Ethereum Classic
(XTZ) Tezos
(MKR) Maker
(OMG) OmiseGO
(ZRX) 0x
(DOGE) Dogecoin
(QTUM) Qtum
(LSK) Lisk
(ZIL) Zilliqa
(AE) Aeternity
(BAT) Basic Attention Token

99.99% of ICOs are scams

Question:

How much ICO money has been raised?

Answer:

2014 Total raised: $16,032,802 [3]

2015 Total raised: $6,084,000 [4]

2016 Total raised: $90,250,273 [5]

2017 Total raised: $6,213,002,958 [6]

2018 Total raised: $7,168,628,996 [7]

Question:

How many projects actually developed something adopted and used daily by the average person?

Answer:

Very few if any. Many of these projects can run just fine without a 'blockchain', so it depends on how you would define the success of a blockchain project.

Question:

Why does everyone think ICOs are scams?

Answer:

Because they are. The researched number comes from Satis Group LLC and it's at or over 80%. [8]

The number is probably a lot higher because crime is often under reported.

Question:

How many custom tokens exists on Ethereum network?

Answer:

793 tokens according to ~~Ether Scam~~ Etherscan [2]

Question:

Who uses them?

Answer:

Almost nobody.

From what I can gather, only BNB is used, and that depends on how you define "used".

Here's how the ICO scam works:

Normally a token is created. The bigger scams tend to raise money on one platform to build a competing platform...

Remember that time EOS did an ERC20 ICO so they can create a directly competing network?

Before the fund raising starts, the team behind the project puts 100% of the existing project funds into hiring a very talented web developer.

Many ICO websites often display a pure white screen because JavaScript isn't enabled. No error messages or anything that would inform you that you're on a website built by people requesting large sums of money.

Once the website has animations, countdown timers, space looking objects, vector graphics, and enough JavaScript to emulate a goodish browser experience, the marketing begins.

Some of the ICO websites are visually incredible and remind you more of a website design contest than an information site. With that said, it's probably because they usually contain very little information.

The team blew the entire budget on the website so the marketing is basically just spamming the website link to the white paper. Although the Bitcoin white paper was only 9-pages, having 50 colorful pages of mostly unproven claims, graphics explaining everything but how it works, and some photos of the team... Well, this is also called a white paper.

A white paper is supposed to explain the theory and provide details about the technology. A 'white paper' for an ICO is basically a pdf export of PowerPoint slides describing nothing. Vague terminology, nice graphics, explaining the 'what', but never the 'how'.

It's customary for the team behind the project to hold large sums of the token in different forms... For example, 10% of the tokens go directly to the developers while another 10% goes directly to the 'company'. It's also customary to sell tokens to 'partners' before the sell begins. If all goes well, the team only has to remind people that it's not a pre-mine simply because they say so.

ICO pre-sale and then ICO launch is an actual thing.

The team isn't forced to hold what they have until they leave the project and are probably the early sellers.

Pre-mine? Who cares?

Now the sell has started and the founders have sold a majority of their coins within 72-hours of the sell. When asked about it, they ensure you that it's for the better health of the community.

The mark of a scammer is when they get rich and then state that it's for the betterment of everyone else. Additionally, their responsibility to deliver is somehow passed onto the public.

A year has passed since the funding for the roadmap had been secured, dumped, and secured again. The founders are now moving on to other things because the project now 'belongs to the community' via a foundation.

Here's how the tokenization scam works:

A team chooses a product that already exists. For example, a chat application

It works best with something that would normally require a database and a point system.

The team makes the same product but adds the token to it in the form of credits.

Instead of normal points for a video game knock-off clone, a 'blockchain' is used.

The ICO gets launched and not single person asked if the toilet warmer really needed a blockchain.

The product may indeed work as intended, but then what? It works just like any other application as far as the user can tell.

Nobody uses DAPPS

Question:

Can you name a single DAPP that's not related to gambling that you use or would like to use?

Answer:

No. Can you?

You often hear about website 'A' or website 'B' being an example of a DAPP, but it's all bullshit in the end. One reason why torrents work so well is because you don't need a single tracker and the torrents can survive domains going down or not responding. I haven't seen the equivalent for the so-called DAPP.

If platforms didn't advertise themselves as DAPPS or blockchain 'X', the user wouldn't have known the difference between other platforms that don't market themselves as such. Maybe someone can prove me wrong and show me that you can
access these things without a traditional domain or another form of a single point of failure access interface?

Someone should create a DAPP that rewards the first person that needs one. No joke.

Dapp List from Cointelegraph

Voting

As we know from the white paper, the promise of blockchain is to provide an electronic payment system and requires a P2P network to exhaust its resources to cryptographically prove the proper order of the transaction history. The coin aspect acts as a reward mechanism to those who provide the verification and security for the network.

Question:

If a coin is the reward for securing the network, who's doing the mining for a voting system?

Answer:

You tell me. I would argue that what they're calling 'blockchain' almost certainly isn't.

Oct 20, 2016 - Delaware Judge Pushes for Blockchain Voting
[30]

APR 06, 2017 - Blockchain Voting May Lead to Liquid Democracy Globally in 20 Years
[31]

AUG 16, 2018- Meet the Man With a Radical Plan for Blockchain Voting
[32]

Oct 04, 2018 - Blockchain Voting Comes to America: West Virginia’s Voatz Experiment
[33]

Jul 3, 2018 - Switzerland's “Crypto Valley” Successfully Completes Blockchain Voting Trial
[34]

Identity

I'm going to keep this section brief because this subject makes me feel retarded just thinking about it.

Question:

How does blockchain defend against identity theft?

Answer:

It doesn't. Stealing private keys might be harder than stealing other forms of ID, but it's solely dependent on the user habits and the technologies they use to identify themselves.

Question:

How does blockchain prove that you are who you claim to be?

Answer:

It doesn't. It proves that whoever has the private keys has the keys.

Question:

How does blockchain help you confirm the identity of people you've never met?

Answer:

It doesn't.

The Conclusion of Bitcoin Maximalism

Stop with the bullshit. We all know why blockchain is being pushed. It's a government dream in a world where 9 of 10 tech giants have their R&D facilities located in Israel [35]. That's just a fraction [36] of the bigger picture, but they fucking brag about it and you're too much of a degenerate gambler to investigate anything of matter. You better hope for a $BTC privacy Soft-Fork or a coin that isn't absolute bullshit.

Prove me wrong. Please, please, please. The future of the world literally depends on it. $BTC or GTFO.

Sources:

0 https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
1 https://web.archive.org/web/20181109170024/https://www.reliablecoin.com/proof-of-stake-coins-list/
2 http://archive.is/8hL6t


3 https://web.archive.org/web/20181109172949/https://www.icodata.io/stats/2014

4 https://web.archive.org/web/20181109173246/https://www.icodata.io/stats/2015

5 https://web.archive.org/web/20181109173239/https://www.icodata.io/stats/2016

6 https://web.archive.org/web/20181109173234/https://www.icodata.io/stats/2017

7 https://web.archive.org/web/20181109173223/https://www.icodata.io/stats/2018

8 https://web.archive.org/web/20181109174949/https://www.investopedia.com/news/80-icos-are-scams-report/

9 https://web.archive.org/web/20181109203310/https://www.coindesk.com/ibm-blockchain-iot-office/

10 https://web.archive.org/web/20181109204029/https://www.thenational.ae/business/du-to-use-blockchain-for-health-records-1.224639

11 https://web.archive.org/web20181109210620/http://www.coindesk.com/dorsey-tells-congress-twitter-is-thinking-about-blockchain-solutions/

12 https://web.archive.org/web/20181109220826/https://www.coindesk.com/worlds-largest-shipping-company-tracking-cargo-blockchain/

13 http://archive.li/Ax1VH

14 https://web.archive.org/web/20181109221100/https://www.coindesk.com/ibm-makes-another-blockchain-identity-play-with-health-data-app/

15 http://archive.fo/etTqp

16 https://web.archive.org/web/20181109225604/https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/10/17/centralized-cryptocurrencies-dominate-market-but-what-about-bitcoin/

17 http://archive.fo/3YmbR

18 http://archive.is/vPuqe

19 http://archive.is/JuNTM

20 https://web.archive.org/web/20181110122135/https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2010/10/99498-peer-to-peer-systems/fulltext

21 https://web.archive.org/web/20181110130952/https://blog.bitmex.com/the-ripple-story/

22 https://web.archive.org/web/20181110131445/https://developers.ripple.com/issued-currencies.html

23 https://web.archive.org/web/20181110133101/https://news.bitcoin.com/neo-approaches-record-high-but-centralization-concerns-persist/

24 https://web.archive.org/web/20181111120049/https://gigablast.com/get?q=nem+server+closed+source&qlang=en&c=main&d=64949252967&cnsp=0

25 https://web.archive.org/web/20181111120809/http://www.digitalmoneypulse.com/NEM.html

26 https://web.archive.org/web/20181111122059/https://bravenewcoin.com/insights/cardano-price-analysis-promising-lofty-goals

27 https://web.archive.org/web/20181111123013/https://medium.com/@ercwl/iota-is-centralized-6289246e7b4d

28 https://web.archive.org/web/20181111125135/https:/twitter.com/zooko/status/1045328801054564355

29 https://cryptoli.st/

30 https://web.archive.org/web20181111135517/http://www.coindesk.com/delaware-judge-blockchain-voting/

31 https://web.archive.org/web/20181111135531/https://cointelegraph.com/news/blockchain-voting-may-lead-to-liquid-democracy-globally-in-20-years

32 https://web.archive.org/web/20181111135539/https://www.wired.com/story/santiago-siri-radical-plan-for-blockchain-voting/

33 https://web.archive.org/web/20181111135600/https://www.nasdaq.com/article/blockchain-voting-comes-to-america-west-virginias-voatz-experiment-cm1032115

34 https://web.archive.org/web/20181111135548/https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/switzerlands-crypto-valley-successfully-completes-blockchain-voting-trial/

35 https://youtu.be/niqRPt8SYmM?t=74

36  https://web.archive.org/web/20181111151332/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_multinational_companies_with_research_and_development_centres_in_Israel

#cryptocurrency #economics #finance

6 years ago in #bitcoin by wheelchairjuice (33)

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