I'm often surprised by the reception I get to telling relatively old stories of bitcoin mining but I have to keep reminding myself how dynamic and ever-changing the landscape and audience is that has zero knowledge of the past.
The bitcoin audience lifecycle seems to be only about 18 months old, with a fresh batch of bright eyed enthusiastic people who are getting their information purely from social media these days. I also see the same kind of arguments rehashed on a regular basis as has been since day one - each debate being seen as some kind of existential threat when the vast majority of them are almost always a storm in a teacup.
The good thing is it's a sign there's always new bitcoiners in the space. The bad thing is the longer we're in the space, the less energy we have for arguing what we see as trivialities. Many of us (me included) have had painful interactions along the way which also makes us take a much more hands-off approach and/or lose enthusiasm for intense development on a scale we once did. Just remember that silence is not a sign we accept that we have lost a debate.
It's the two-edged sword of a truly consensus based protocol, but ultimately is a superpower since nothing ever progresses without endless debate, and leads to the best result for bitcoin.
It's now been just over 15 years since I first contributed patches to cpuminer as my entry into the bitcoin world. What a ride it's been, and it still feels like we're just getting started.
Bitcoin mining difficulty had its biggest drop in a very long time of 7.5% to ~117T. Still insanely high but won't last and will no doubt return to the same level as previously once the weather in Texas becomes inclement. It will also take less time to return to its former self.
