Goodbye, Bitcoin.
After 10 years, Iâm done. This is my last cycle, Itâs time to move on. I bought my first BTC back in 2015 for one reason: greed. Pure, simple greed. Same in 2017, when I went all in and stumbled onto Andreas' talks. That led to a deep dive into the protocol, and later into the Lightning Network. I learned a ton about money, society, history, politicsâI ran nodes, bought almost every hardware and tried out every software wallet, and leveled up my personal privacy. But in the end, I donât believeâanymoreâthat anything truly groundbreaking will emerge from this space. Thereâs never going to be a "Bitcoin Standard," and honestly, thank god for that. Hyperbitcoinization? Not happening. Thatâs just a fantasy cooked up by a loud, delusional group in Bitcoin, with their âwinner takes allâ and "law of the jungle" mentality. Angry, young, inexperienced guys who want to burn everything down with zero idea of what comes next.
The tribalism in Bitcoin? Yeah, I could never vibe with that.
As an asset? Sure, Bitcoin did a 20x in 2020/2021, but then lost 80% right after. That's a terrible performance for any investment and not a stable store of value. Why would you risk losing 80% of your money just to end up where you started?
I will turn 50 next year, and there is no room in my retirement savings for an asset that fluctuates so wildly in value. I canât start over again.
Anonymity on the base layer? Not happening anymore. And if itâs not anonymous, I donât want it. So no thanks to Bitcoin on the base layer. Is a cryptocurrency that lacks anonymity really better in terms of privacy than PayPal and similar services? I can transfer my money back and forth in seconds with SEPA instant transfers. For free! Why wait for a block?
As for the whole ânot your keys, not your coinsâ mantraâletâs be real, if you still want to be in Bitcoin, youâre probably better off just buying it through apps and forgetting about owning your own keys. Hardware wallets? Theyâre clunky, ugly, expensive, and a pain to use. They never caught on, and once youâve used them, theyâre basically electronic junk.
Acceptance? Nobody was using Bitcoin 10 years ago, and nobodyâs using it today. Meanwhile, stablecoins seem to see much broader adoption. And in the end, whatâs the point of all these cryptocurrencies anyway? Sure, you can move your money from A to B without government interference, great. But who really needs that? Some do, but most of us donât. Any cryptocurrency can do that. Ethereum works fine without Proof of Work, and so do many others. Can we just admit that? Why cling to the old, slow system when newer ones donât need massive amounts of energy and do the same job - which is to achieve consensus. Bitcoin is an ELECTRONIC peer-to-peer cash system. Do we need that? An electronic apparatus, spread across the globe, doing what? Writing a ledger while consuming a huge amount of energy. Everything is software these days. Why use the old, noisy, polluting apparatus when the new ones can achieve consensus without it - faster?
Andreas once said, âBitcoin is unstoppable.â Well, after 10 years of watching Bitcoin and its community, I disagree. I think it *is* stoppable, and honestly, I hope itâs not the future. Someone once said, âBitcoin is an old man full of regretsâ and I get it now. Itâs a slow, inefficient database. And letâs be honest, many Bitcoiners are assholes with that infuriating captain hindsight attitude. Sure, there are great & lovely peopleâAnita, Andreas, Alex Gladstein, Troy Crossâ but they are the same people that were around a decade ago. The overwhelming number of assholes in this space is crushing. Thatâs why so many people canât stand Bitcoiners. And thatâs never going to change, because Bitcoin wonât change. The community is too stubborn.
Also: The wrong idols. Why are so many people worshiping the worst of the worst? Alex Jones? People celebrating Michael Saylor on *Fox News* with Tucker Carlson? Kneeling at the feet of characters like Javier Milei and other bizarros? Even though Bitcoiners call it the âtruth bubble,â they still cheer for the chronic liar Trump? Itâs embarrassing. As a German with a bit of historical sensitivity, Iâm naturally skeptical of loud, aggressive politicians who just want to tear everything down. And as a gay person, I canât help but ask: Why are there no openly LGBTQ people in this space? Sure, thereâs Anita, and I know of one conservative đ lawyer from the US who came out, but thatâs about it. Gays and lesbians are everywhereâso why
arenât they in Bitcoin? Well, I know why: because Bitcoiners are assholes, and theyâll weaponize it against you the second they can. Hell no, Iâd never put a rainbow flag on my profile, not in this hate-fueled community.
I'm gonna donate and support some people in this space. For the family. After that, Iâll leave the crypto space or switch to Ethereum/other chains. They go on about 'ultra-sound money' and other nonsense, but they seem nicer to me.
All in all, Iâve come to the conclusion that the Bitcoin community is just not a very likable one.
Peace & Love (because thatâs whatâs missing in Bitcoin)
