CoinGeek Weekly Livestream: Connor Murray looks back at the events of Bitcoin Independence Day

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Connor Murray joined Kurt Wuckert Jr. on the CoinGeek Weekly Livestream to celebrate Bitcoin Independence Day and discuss what’s happening in the Bitcoin SV ecosystem and wider digital currency markets.

November 15—The 4th Anniversary of BSV

Wuckert begins by pointing out that November 15 is Bitcoin Independence Day—the day BSV was set free from the rest of the passing off Bitcoin nightmare. This is the third episode CoinGeek has done celebrating this special date.

Murray begins by outlining his Bitcoin story; he first heard about it at college. This was in and around when the Silk Road saga hit the headlines. Murray kept following Bitcoin with a vague interest until around 2015, when he became more involved in the scaling debate. He bought some BCH when the split happened, and he went down the rabbit hole from there.

Wuckert recalls how he was a big blocker but was into digital currencies generally and didn’t really have a strong opinion. He realized that Bitcoin could do everything other blockchain claims could do.

Slowly, he started to notice the same cliquish cult-like mentality in Bitcoin ABC that he did in BTC Core.

Murray remembers being excited back then by all the innovation and progress in BCH. Slowly, he started coming around to Dr. Craig Wright’s way of thinking. Wuckert recalls how enigmatic Dr. Wright came across to him initially, noting that he kept his distance from him for a while until he could figure him out.

On Roger Ver and the Bitcoin ecosystem

“Roger seems to have retired from Bitcoin entirely at this point,” Wuckert says, reflecting on the leader of BCH. He says Ver was a pivotal person on his own Bitcoin journey, and it’s sad to see him burned out and tired of it.

Wuckert asks what would happen if BSV and BCH proponents buried the hatchet and tried again? He asks Murray for his opinion on it, and he responds that he thinks there’s such a difference of opinion between the protocol developers that it wouldn’t be productive. What he would like to see is more power players in BSV, including miners, developers, and others.

Delving into the Bitcoin ecosystem more, Wuckert notes how nChain has so many patents and 300 employees. However, he won’t get to hear their voices as individuals, and Wuckert wishes these voices would be added to the conversation because the ideas they express would be valuable. While Murray agrees this could be valuable, he also believes that enough people are working silently on BSV that it will be around for a very long time.

On changes and the Bitcoin roadmap in general

Speaking of this silent progress, Wuckert asks Murray for an overview of it. He knows Murray works with many people working on things like Teranode, the IPv6 integration stuff, Liteclient, and more, and he wants to learn more about it.

Murray answers by talking about the ‘set in stone’ mantra. He says that the most important thing anyone can ensure today is that transactions made today will be valid for 100 years. This extends to any transactions using any script whatsoever. There’s also an immutable ruleset, such as there only being 21 million coins that must be followed.

Wuckert agrees and notes that it’s within BTC that hardline economic planners want to shift the rules around and change things. This is the antithesis of the free market Bitcoin was supposed to be. In BTC, everybody trusts the BIP editor—he’s the gatekeeper, and he can veto anything.

BSV’s open culture and what Connor Murray would change

When the hash war happened, Wuckert recalls that there was an incredible amount of openness to his questions on the BSV side, and there was none on the ABC side. He’d get dismissive, irritated responses from BCHers while Bitcoin SV developers would explain things to him in detail.

According to people Wuckert has talked to inside nChain, that open culture remains today. While Dr. Wright can be fiery and temperamental at times, there’s no question you can’t ask. Research and development and trying new things are also welcome.

If Murray could wave a magic wand and change something in Bitcoin, he’d create a common set of shared facts. For example, right now, people can’t even agree on what a node is. Since it seems so difficult to establish basic facts, there needs to be more leadership to get the message out that BSVers have demonstrated they are correct about Bitcoin via the scientific method.

“We need to be more forceful with how we present ourselves,” he says, noting that it’s time to take the gloves off.

Watch: The BSV Global Blockchain Convention panel, The Future World with Blockchain