On this week’s episode of the CoinGeek Weekly Livestream, Kurt Wuckert Jr. hosted an Ask Me Anything in which he talked about how to make Bitcoin stronger, building on BSV, Edward Snowden, intellectual property rights, and much more.
The protocol war
After reminding us to focus on building value rather than participating in social media shenanigans, Wuckert reiterates that big block Bitcoin SV has already won the protocol war.
He notes that people may laugh at this idea, but the facts show that BSV is the best blockchain by every technical metric. Therefore, BSV won the protocol war. That said, it’s possible to lose the commercial battles and wars to come; it’s not just the protocol war.
Emphasizing this point, Wuckert points out that scaling to hundreds of billions of transactions is not just a computer science problem that should be left to R&D departments. Ultimately, these problems will only be solved when the true need for scale is there from an economic standpoint.
Hard work, building businesses, and solving problems with the blockchain will ultimately make Bitcoin stronger. We all have a responsibility to it because “we all work for Bitcoin,” Wuckert says, echoing Jack Liu.
Bridging the gap between blockchain and traditional finance
Viewer ‘Messy Times’ asks what the best approach to bridging the gap between blockchain and the traditional finance guys who view it as “drunk monkey pics” is?
Wuckert says that the first step is being honest: right now, most of it is just drunk monkey pictures. The situation is so absurd that it has become an opportunity cost to try and build a real business. “There’s more money in memes than there is in infrastructure,” he says, noting that he would have been much richer if he had flipped JPEGs rather than built a mining company.
MakerDAO’s Nikolai Mushegian
In this episode, Wuckert also comments on the recent events surrounding Nikolai Mushegian, the founder of MakerDAO, who was found dead this week in Puerto Rico. He had previously been a BSV supporter.
While his death is shrouded in mystery, and he tweeted conspiratorial things about Mossad and spies before he was found, Wuckert finds his death saddening because he was such a vocal supporter of Bitcoin SV.
Edward Snowden and Dr. Craig Wright
Speaking of spies, Wuckert turns to the recent spat between Edward Snowden and Dr. Craig Wright on Twitter. He says upfront that we’re talking about intelligence agency assets, so there’s a lot of disinformation.
Briefly covering the history, Wuckert tells us that Snowden was a CIA contractor who released information about what the NSA was monitoring by spying on Americans using technology. This was a huge story about a decade ago, and Snowden ultimately fled to Hong Kong and then Russia to escape prosecution. Overall, Wuckert thinks what Snowden did was a net good as it exposed massive privacy violations and government overreach.
However, Dr. Wright doesn’t feel the same way. He called Snowden a “piece of traitorous scum.” Wuckert tries to see things from Dr. Wright’s perspective, noting that he is an Anglosphere patriot and loves British thought. This is why he’s so passionate about law and order. He’s also from an older generation in which the USSR was the baddie, and so those who work with Russia are automatically seen in a negative light.
News and updates from BSV companies
Viewer Brandon Ward asks if there are any major updates or newsworthy events in the pipeline from BSV companies.
Wuckert mentions Certihash, which was recently featured on the first episode of Blockchain Hustlers. They’ve been flying all over the world, building and commercializing, and Wuckert wishes more people would do as they do.
He also likes what some of the Bitcoin Association technical team are doing in conjunction with Electrum and others. On top of this, he’s bullish on his own company GorillaPool and associated ventures like Jungle Bus. There are some upcoming announcements regarding both.
Speaking of GorillaPool, Wuckert says the firm is attracting new investors to add hash power and mine more blocks. He says it has a long roadmap, and some of the things they’ll do will surprise many people. He encourages viewers to read his recent article, “Mine about it.” He says that if 100 people bought between one to three ASIC miners, BSVers would have enough hash power to make it unsustainable for the empty block miner, so adding more hash power can only be a good thing.
Answering another viewer question specifically about Omniscape, Wuckert says he hasn’t heard from Robert Rice in a while and isn’t sure about specifics, but he knows they are working hard and doing well.
Dr. Craig Wright’s comments and claims
A viewer asks whether some of Dr. Wright’s more outlandish comments, which haven’t come to fruition, hurt BSV. Wuckert says no. Everything is public relations, and Wuckert doesn’t think what he says matters much to Bitcoin.
Giving an example of one statement he didn’t like, Wuckert points to the $1,200 price claim. He generally tries to avoid talking about token prices. That said, claims such as that BSV will reach billions of transactions per second are not harmful—they just need more time. Ultimately, Wuckert believes that BSV will completely take over or will fail. It’s an all-or-nothing scenario.
Answering a related question about Dr. Wright, Wuckert says he doesn’t know why nChain doesn’t enforce its patents. If he was CEO, he’d probably take a look at the patent strategy, but he isn’t, so he can’t comment.
Global success for BSV
A viewer asks whether the ultimate success of BSV depends on the work being done with Latif Ladid and IPv6. Wuckert bluntly answers “no,” saying that he likes Ladid, but if he decided to quit, BSV would not necessarily fail.
Yes, the work with IPv6 is exciting, but Ladid is not the lynchpin. BSV will exist long after everyone, Wuckert included, is gone.
On patents and intellectual property
Wuckert says that, in the past, he was anti-intellectual property and patents. Bitcoin is the thing that changed his mind about this. The ability to own a number on a screen made him realize that ownership of non-physical items is possible. Giving a further example, he points to seed phrases that can be generated and owned.
All of this started to break down Wuckert’s resistance to the idea of intellectual property. He acknowledges that patents can be used for both good and evil, but ultimately, he thinks the world is a better place for them. Looking at countries that don’t recognize intellectual property rights, he wouldn’t want to live in any of them.
Speaking briefly about COPA, or the Crypto Open Patent Alliance, Wuckert sees them as a sinister force that isn’t what it seems. While they claim to be for ‘openness,’ when you try to build something that violates one of the patents they control, they’ll force you to seek permission to use their patents. Essentially, they’re making you work with them.
Wrapping up, Wuckert says that you can’t make intellectual property go away, so the only option is to form a business plan that works around it or uses it to your advantage.
Watch: The BSV Global Blockchain Convention presentation, Making Blockchain Easy for Real World Use
New to blockchain? Check out CoinGeek’s Blockchain for Beginners section, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about blockchain technology.
