Am an OG Bitcoiner slowly coming around to the fact that Craig is Satoshi. I was not extremely early (nor successful) but have been buzzing around since 2012 nonetheless (and have cross posted this to bitcointalk.org today)
And I'm also an independent coder who's since built applications on Bitcoin and been paid in Bitcoin for services/hours rendered apart of consulting & software projects. I also have a small brick & mortar shop & accept Bitcoin at the till. In other words, I'm a rare but real user of Bitcoin using it for real world/day to day transactions.
Though I was skeptical of SegWit, like many I glossed over the attack/smear propaganda on Craig and just superficially thought that well he must be a fraud cause everyone says so.
It wasn't until only recently, discouraged by the echo chamber that is BTC and inspired by the need to make some key technology decisions for upcoming product development, that I began to listen to his talks and more recently the interviews/podcasts.
He is clearly a passionate & talented individual with all of the credentials & experience needed to have created the original Bitcoin. Not that it matters looking forward.
I wanted to give Bitcoin SV a chance particularly as I have a growing need for a secure endpoint / addressing system ie- blockchain for this product I have been working on for some amount of years. Not to mention a couple related projects that will share the same tech. I've built on BTC thus far but Lightning network breaks the chain IMO and I think this is disruptive for longterm application development. Naturally I turned my attention to BCH and BSV.
Then I heard Craig say something that concerns me deeply. It was his response to regarding Ross Ulbricht here at 51:18
https://youtu.be/E9t63P3vdeA?si=s2YDcgTyvC68FoZv&t=3074
"Should he be in jail for consecutive life terms?"
"yes, I believe so"
he goes on to say that "if we ever have corrupt police, that is one of the worst things... corrupt police - public execution if you ask me"
Is he not being incredibly shortsightedness about the corrupt policing involved in Ross' case? Someone tried to cookup a murder-for-hire story that was never applicable in court because it was so flaky. Who was that... did it involve corrupt police? And is the judge corrupt for the excessive sentencing? If a corrupt cop deserves death what about a judge?
And regarding drugs, I respect that he is taking a strong moral position against the distribution of dangerous substances.
But 2 wrongs do not make a right; if a freedom loving pie in the sky entrepreneur made the mistake of creating a market (using Craig's tech) that was a little too open - which paved the way for OTHER bad people to do bad things - where does Craig with his masters degree in law determine that said marketowner deserves to rot in a cage until death with the keys thrown away?
And who will carry out this sentencing for Craig; he expects that 'the system' will just work out and handle this pesky criminal entreprenuer for him. If Craig Wright wants Ross in a cage forever, Craig should be the one who tries to keep him there. At least then his friends & family would have much more viable option to bust him out.
Anyway, I tried to engage with Craig directly on this, but he subsequently blocked me on Twitter without providing a satisfactory reply. So here we are.
This is a bit of a wrench in my plans; I was keen to learn more about setting up a BSV node and the costs involved. Not necessarily to run one myself but I wanted to experiment and test the features/functionality of BSV before saddling up and doing any serious product development on this.
And tangentiality I think this series of events naturally oerlaps with an internal philosophical struggle in using money altogther. On one had we need a system better than fiat. On the other, replacing one elaborate system for a new elaborate system does not seem like the solution human civilization really needs.
In fact, it seems money itself - aka root of all evil - really is the root of all evil. Or stated otherwise, a cancerous idea that is going to wipe us out or at best - chain us forever. The deeper problem even beyond money it seems is consent to third party authority: systems, people, technology ie- anyone who is not directly involved in fulfilling your needs. For example, if Craig didn't consent his authority for force to third parties he would need to use force himself or at least his own resources to imprison someone for forever. This is ironically the solution to that natural balance he himself says is necessary.
Today I just 'use money' and Bitcoin right now cause like everyone else it is the 'current sea' I find myself in. More and more however, I just want to sail to a place where there is not this mass of consenting believers everywhere; I want to return to nature and exchange what I have for what I need with people without a third party system or shadowperson involving themselves in every transaction. Of course, the ship may have sailed already as our world is torched around us by those who have for so long taken advantage of this critical flaw in human 'civilization' /end rant.
