The NFX Podcast The Founders' List: Vitalik Buterin on Bitcoin Maximalism, Currency, and Platform Network Effects
This is The Founders’ List – audio versions of essays from technology’s most important leaders, selected by the founder community.
In this article (published in 2014) Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin challenges the Bitcoin maximalist movement a few different ways. Bitcoin maximalists believe that all other digital currencies are inferior to Bitcoin. The idea that an environment of multiple competing cryptocurrencies is undesirable and that it is both righteous and inevitable that the Bitcoin currency comes to take a monopoly position in the cryptocurrency scene.
Maximalists argue that a single road—or a single cryptocurrency—will have more value because more people will have to use it.
Vitalik does a deep dive into the technicals of launching a protocol, the network effects that take place, and the incentive/psychological arguments that can be had against the maximalist movement.
Read the essay here - https://blog.ethereum.org/2014/11/20/bitcoin-maximalism-currency-platform-network-effects/
(0:00) Introduction to the episode (0:15) Discussion on Bitcoin dominance and new crypto protocol creation (3:15) Exploration of side chains and counterparty's Ethereum smart contracts (6:06) Analysis of network effects in a crypto economic context (13:57) Discussion on the downside of side chains and proof of stake (16:13) Examination of the power and limitations of currency network effects (18:43) Concept of US Beller stablecoin maximalism and the case against transaction fees (20:15) Incentive and psychological arguments for multiple crypto fuels (23:23) Overview of Blockstream's funding strategies and issues with crypto 2.0 companies (26:54) Discussion on Hayekian currency competition, future of volcoins, and potential issues with pre-mining and presales (29:52) Closing remarks and information about NFX podcast