On the latest episode of the Bankless podcast, Vitalik Buterin expanded on his blog article, “In Defense of Bitcoin maximalism.” In fact, he also touched upon why he thinks maximalism is good, a counter-argument of why the concept should be ridiculed, and what lies between the two ends of the maximalism rope.
Addressing the issue of Buterin’s thoughts on maximalism, he said:
“In reality, there is a collection of things that the Ethereum community underestimates. But, there is a much bigger argument for the other side that Bitcoin maximalists fail to realize.
Maximalism and more…
Bitcoin maximalism comes from the deep-rooted thought that the crypto is superior to every other altcoin in the market based on the strength and security the network offers. Conceding somewhat to the favouritism with Bitcoin, the Ethereum co-founded claimed,
“The first projects in the industry are the most authentic.”
He further argued that crypto-assets such as Bitcoin have real cultural and structural advantages, thus making them powerful assets worth holding and using. He went on to add that Bitcoin is an excellent example of an honourable cryptocurrency.
That was not all, however. Buterin clarified that he does not stand for everything maximalists believe in, adding that maximalists tend to ignore some pressing issues that exist.
The perspective shift
Addressing the issue of how maximalism might affect the crypto-market, he said,
“The culture of the maximalists is unnecessarily antagonistic. It upsets the US government, the governments of big countries and small countries. This antagonizes other cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin minimalists support the idea of making room for other cryptocurrencies in the market. They don’t see Bitcoin as anything other than a “good-store-of-value.” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, for instance, believes that tribalism around Bitcoin and other cryptos is responsible for holding back the growth of the $2T cryptocurrency market.
Bitcoin maximalism will always exist because a particular class of cryptocurrency society would always champion it. However, maximalists have been more flexible lately.
For example, Grayscale found that that more than 87% Bitcoin owners also own another cryptocurrency.
A happy medium
Talking about finding common ground between ardent Bitcoin maximalists and minimalists, Vitalik Buterin went on to explain how Ethereum tries to find common ground. According to him, it keeps the core protected and at the same time interacts and appeals to various groups with different schools of thought.
“Ethereum is the decentralized center and has extremes on one side and extremes on the other side and the Ethereum community is, I think, one whose greatest virtue really doing its best to kind of move toward having the best of both.”
Top of Form
