Author: ZmnSCPxj 2021-10-11 19:53:39
Published on: 2021-10-11T19:53:39+00:00
The context is a response to a suggestion that bitcoin development should follow the engineering norm of separating concerns. The internet has a maxim of "be strict in what you provide, lenient in what you accept", which allows for slight incompatibilities between software to generally be papered over. However, Bitcoin, as a consensus system, requires being paranoiacally strict on what transactions and blocks are accepted. Thus, separating concerns, which is a great application to "lenient in what you accept" systems may not apply to "hell no I am not accepting that block" Bitcoin. Additionally, Bitcoin is inherently political, and it possible that the only way out is through: resistance against state moneys, which may require rejecting capitulation despite bundling. The author suggests that if one wants to advocate bitcoin development run counter to engineering norms, they should provide a much stronger refutation of these norms.
Updated on: 2023-06-15T02:36:30.347085+00:00