How Would You Further Hyperbitcoinization?

“If you had unlimited time and resources to do anything you wanted, how would you further Hyperbitcoinization?” 

This was the question posed to me by Satoshi’s Journal founder, Jeremy Garcia. He was in town for the Pacific Bitcoin Conference and bought me a beer at Anders’ #ToxicHappyHour pleb party! I should’ve known we weren’t going to talk about the LA Rams but instead go down a Bitcoin rabbit hole. 

At that moment, raising my voice so he could hear me above the crowd at the bar, I answered: “A full Bitcoin node in every home!”. 

If everyone ran their node, then Bitcoin would reach its full potential as a peer-to-peer electronic cash network for the world.  

“Do you know why the bitcoin asset has a limit of 21 million?” I asked Jeremy.

“Because it’s written that way in the code, and it’s a math formula and can’t be changed,” he replied.

“Close; it’s because we all choose to run Bitcoin code with a 21 million limit,” I answered.

 Not your node, not your rules.

 The Bitcoin code can be changed, and it has! Bitcoin Cash, BSV, and DogeCoin are all hard forks of Bitcoin that have changed the code in a meaningful way. The reason they have yet to succeed isn’t technical but because they lack Bitcoin’s network effects. 

You can copy the code, but you can’t copy the network, and you can’t easily win over all the hearts and minds of people who believe Bitcoin should have a 21 million limit and run a node that enforces it.

 And how can we further that Hyperbitcoinization vision? A node in every home.

Will Schoellkopf is author of “The Bitcoin Dog: Following The Scent To The Bitcoin C++ Source Code,” and host of the Bitcoin podcast “It’s So Early!“.  Will publishes a weekly newsletter featuring his favorite Bitcoin Tweets of the week!  He is published in both Bitcoin Magazine and Satoshi’s Journal. Follow him on Twitter @realBitcoinDog, or email will [@] realbitcoindog [.] com