Catching Up to Crypto

CHAPTER 8What the Fork?: The Block‐Size War

The early days of Bitcoin were fun and exciting for almost everyone involved. The stakes weren't extremely high in those first few years, and early adopters were experimenting with an interesting new technology that had the potential to change the world. The Bitcoin community was filled with rebels, nerds, and dreamers – with most Bitcoiners fitting into all three categories. Many of the early builders and advocates of Bitcoin had deep philosophical motivations for their participation in the space – as can be seen with some of the figures we've covered so far. However, there was no general consensus on what the philosophy of Bitcoin actually was. Although many early developers were vocal Libertarians, the technology was neutral – so any individual could envision it working exactly as they thought it should be designed, serving whatever they thought its global role should be. There were often lively debates on popular forums like Bitcointalk and Reddit, and given how it was such a small and close‐knit community, the atmosphere was usually friendly and collaborative.

Many early adopters felt that the Bitcoin network was a democratic system because there was no leader or CEO. However, as soon as Bitcoin started making people serious money, it ran into troubles with scaling, and disagreement emerged over how the protocol should be developed and governed. One of the original pitches for Bitcoin was that it is a cheap, fast, and easy way ...