Conversation

Andy Matuschak
@andy_matuschak
Earnestly/naively curious: what are the best first-principles arguments for why Bitcoin should not end up fully superseded by Ethereum? (Please don’t make me regret asking this! This is a truth-seeking q; I have no dog in this fight)
Quote Tweet
Eli Dourado
@elidourado
·
Replying to @BrantlyMillegan
They have completely given up. The narrative now is “hodl,” as if you could ever change the world by sitting on your hands and literally doing nothing.
25
8
124
Andy Matuschak
@andy_matuschak
Replying to
@andy_matuschak
An excellent thread of reasons from
@balajis
. I particularly like his crossover point that people thought Facebook would subsume Twitter, looking naively at feature set.
Quote Tweet
Balaji Srinivasan
@balajis
·
Replying to @andy_matuschak
Most of @elidourado’s arguments for ETH are good. But it just serves a different purpose than BTC. Ethereum is programmable finance. Bitcoin is digital gold. Even EIP-1559 won’t change that because it signals that Ethereum *has* a mutable monetary policy.
1
1
11
Andy Matuschak
@andy_matuschak
BTW I’ve been mildly shocked that this thread has mostly avoided eliciting obnoxious behavior in my mentions. I have updated more charitably towards crypto Twitter! Thanks, people-with-laser-eyes!
35
Show replies
gwillen 💉💉💉🎉
@gwillen
Replying to
@andy_matuschak
Monetary policy is part of it, but I'd say it goes deeper than that. The BTC philosophy is that the system should be only as complex as required, because simpler is safer; and that it should be stable and very hard to change. 1/
1
1
gwillen 💉💉💉🎉
@gwillen
By contrast, ETH has a powerful & complex scripting language, which is a big factor in loss of funds to smart contract bugs; & it has upgrades that break backwards compatibility (intentionally) every 1-2 years. 2/
1
Show replies