2025 New Year’s Resolutions for BSV

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What would you change about BSV and its “community” if you could? How will BSV get better in 2025?

2024 was an interesting year (to say the least), and the world around us will probably only get more interesting in the new year. As much as we in the blockchain space like to think of ourselves as visionaries and thought leaders, we also need to adapt to the changes around us. Some of those changes are technological, presenting new opportunities. Others are cultural and geopolitical, which could be opportunities or threats. This isn’t my list of predictions, but a few suggestions on how we could improve BSV’s outlook in the new year.

Like all good New Year’s Resolutions lists, feel free to pick and choose the ones you’d like to keep. They’re not, er, set in stone. We’d also love for you to share this article. Tell us how much you agree or disagree and add a few suggestions of your own.

The situation in 2024-25

“May you live in interesting times” is supposedly an old Chinese curse but probably isn’t, since there is no Chinese-language record of anyone having said it. Nevertheless, it’s an old meme that still checks out in whichever era or culture it’s applied. In general, it’s better to live in peaceful times than in “interesting” ones, which tend to be loaded with uncertainty and upheaval.

Speaking of things Chinese, 2025 is the Year of the Snake, the sixth of the twelve-year zodiac cycle and one said to symbolize wisdom, charm, elegance, and transformation.

The past decade or two have indeed been “interesting,” and the passing of each year seems to bring more uncertainty, more crumbling of accepted paradigms in geopolitics and culture, and ever more desperate attempts by the old order to resuscitate itself. But every crisis is also an opportunity (there’s even a made-up Chinese meme for that one, too), and as Bitcoiners, we should be reveling in it.

As you might recall, Bitcoin first appeared smack in the middle of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-09, and its Genesis Block even contains a coded reference to this. Right from the start, Bitcoin has been an experiment aiming to solve problems in existing structures.

“Interesting times” shouldn’t be a curse for Bitcoiners. Amid the turmoil of the 21st century, we shouldn’t be the ones running around with our hair on fire; that’s for normies who don’t understand what’s going on. We’re the ones working behind the scenes to build the foundations for what comes next.

Which brings me to the first New Year’s Resolution for BSV. It’s broad, but an essential one:

1. Keep telling everyone why truth matters in the Big Data Era

With some incredulity, we must acknowledge a need to convince the wider world that truth (and, with it, verifiability) are things that still matter. It should be a given, but that’s where we are in the 2020s. Instead, we’re told we live in a “post-truth era” where narrative trumps observable reality, which always sounds like a convenient excuse for those who’d prefer to concoct new narratives for us to swallow. Nope, truth still matters, and in a future where most of our information is electronic and seemingly ephemeral, we need ways to verify that the information we’re receiving is genuine.

“Why do I need this? What I already have works fine” is a phrase we’ve heard for years as we tried to explain why Bitcoin’s sound money principles and transparent/immutable records were superior to fiat currencies and fractional-reserve banking. And after 15 years, we still haven’t convinced the majority.

BSV takes Bitcoin’s principles and applies them to ALL data, not just financial transactions. Yet the response remains the same—blockchain may work OK, but the world seems satisfied with what it already has. Therefore, our case needs to highlight every point where it’s clearly not OK and show how blockchain records take ephemeral data and turn it into something we can trust again.

Whenever online records are altered, whenever official narratives shift, for every new instance of official hypocrisy (e.g., headlines, statistics, statements, and values), we should point it out. This already happens to some extent on new media platforms, but even some of those examples themselves are faked or filtered. We need to know for sure where something has changed, and we need the ability to verify this for ourselves.

OK that’s our Big Picture resolution; now let’s get down to the more specific stuff:

2. Ignore the trolls

By now, people in the BSV industry should’ve developed a thicker skin than most others in the blockchain world. Our trolls are relentless in their campaign to discredit BSV’s Bitcoin heritage and technological achievements.

2024 saw them reach new levels of repetition and self-parody, but their message lacks imagination and has begun to exhaust itself. The good news is that the wider world isn’t really paying attention. Trolls exist mainly on social networks, and their powers diminish noticeably outside them. To outsiders, it’s another case of one niche feuding with another, and they don’t listen to the drama. Neither should we.

Trolls thrive on engagement, so don’t give them any. Ongoing debate threads are pointless and ultimately just waste your time. X is phasing out its “block” function, but “mute” has always been the better option. It takes more effort, but your brain also works as a mute filter. It’s clear BSV lives rent-free in their minds, but that shouldn’t mean they get to live in yours, too.

I hate to say it, but we can learn from governments here. Notice how, these days, they prefer not to engage, or even acknowledge, their critics? Instead, they stay on message and restate their points. It’s a useful and effective skill designed in part to frustrate opponents.

Enough about that. The next one is something more muscular, and if it’s possible for a non-sentient blockchain to make resolutions, this is its equivalent to signing up for a gym (and actually following through with the workouts):

3. Teranode: BSV is getting ripped in 2025!

Weirdly enough, getting Teranode live is probably the most attainable New Year’s Resolution in this wish-list. That’s probably because most of the hard work has already been done, and since BSV isn’t human, it doesn’t need to maintain motivation to get results. The full, public, mainnet release of Bitcoin’s beefed-up protocol is still on track for release in H1 2025. With this extreme makeover, it’ll feel like we’re finally living in the future.

Plenty has been written about Teranode’s technical capabilities already, so right now, we’ll just cheerlead. Millions of transactions PER SECOND (TPS), and all on-chain! Horizontal scaling! Microservices galore! It sounds absolutely awesome, and even some BSV superfans have trouble picturing what a million TPS upgrade will look like for the industry.

Actually, the biggest challenge for Teranode will be building applications to fill those enormous blocks with transactions and data. We don’t want to be that metaphor of the luxury, high-speed train with no passengers. It’s time to take a serious look at the tech and get creative.

The next two resolutions are interlinked, yet they have many facets. So, for the grand finale, let’s take a dive into:

4. Be less Boomer-ish – or, give some credit to BSV’s other communities and subcultures

Hat tip to George Siosi Samuels for this one, and he’s always able to articulate it better than me. But in 2025 I’d like to see BSV examine all (or at least more) of the niches and sub-niches where it might find some appeal, and highlight its actual end-result benefits rather than focusing on feature sets.

One example of the angst surrounding this issue is the “boomers vs. degens” gap, highlighted in an sCrypt Hackathon panel in April. Panelists Josh Petty, Billy Rose, and Jack Liu lamented BSV’s focus on sensible and corporate “enterprise blockchain” messaging and wished for something a little more fun.

The “degens,” or younger participants who just want to have some fun with the technology (and make a few speculative bucks trading tokens), also have a role to play in spreading BSV’s word.

“No amount of putting on a suit is going to make all this work.” – Jack Liu

Being a Gen-Xer feels like having a foot on either side of that gap. I understand perfectly the desire to disassociate from the “crypto casino” scene that is anathema to regulators, enterprises (mostly), and governments in certain world regions. But at the same time, it’s impossible to deny the impact blockchain’s hype cycle has had on bringing this technology to everyone’s attention.

The Lambos and geeky parties can feel embarrassing to anyone over 40, but they’re fun for the people at the party. Don’t deny them their fun, and don’t deny the impact they could have as a proving ground for scalable blockchain.

“‘Yeah, you can do a lot with BSV. It’s scalable Bitcoin. You can do tons of transactions per second.’ Seriously, nobody cares. People need to interact with it and have a good time doing it. And hopefully making money.” – Billy Rose

(Note: this section is not anti-boomer; I’m just saying there should be room for everyone in the tent.)

Which leads right into the final New Year’s resolution for BSV in 2025:

5. Give BSV some more… style

Whatever you might feel about the boomers vs. degens issue, I think many of us can agree that BSV’s branding is a little bland sometimes. Not only that, but it has a split personality: sometimes it’s Bitcoin, and sometimes it’s “BSV Blockchain.” There are reasons for this, but it wouldn’t hurt to be a bit more stylish with the design.

BSV blockchain has a logo, but can anyone describe what it looks like without looking it up? It’d be perfectly at home, modeled in chrome and rotating on a pole outside some glass skyscraper. Otherwise, our most-used symbols are the slightly modified Bitcoin logo, which no one recognizes as BSV except for hardcore BSV fans, and the (admittedly cool-looking) dragon, which is actually the logo for Bitcoin SV Node, not the network itself.

The coming of Teranode, as mentioned above, is one of BSV’s most exciting and anticipated developments. Does Teranode have a catchy symbol? I definitely hope it will, though I’ve not seen one yet. And I’m not sure how trademarkable that name is, but it’s a kickass-sounding word. It wouldn’t surprise me if “Teranode” found a broader use as a preferred name for the network itself; just as SV Node’s dragon became an unofficial symbol for BSV, so could Teranode somehow.

I’m no advertising genius, but surely it’s possible to hire someone who is and get them to create design elements that simultaneously scream “exciting” and “sensible in the corporate sense.” If BSV is getting ripped in 2025 with Teranode, let’s get some new clothes to complement it.

Anyway, Happy New Year!

That’s how I see things at the end of 2024. Others may have better ideas or more important priorities. It’s also possible the world will whip another chaos rabbit out of its hat before the year even starts, giving us an entirely new set of conditions to deal with. But remember, whatever happens, WGMI!

Watch: Developers can propel the BSV blockchain forward