Scaling Bitcoin tackled at CoinGeek Weekly Livestream AMA

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Kurt Wuckert Jr. returned to the airwaves on August 27 to host an hour-long CoinGeek Weekly Livestream Bitcoin Ask Me Anything. As usual, he covered topics all across the Bitcoin spectrum with scaling, Teranode, free markets, and much more in the mix.

Are projects on top of BSV, such as OPNET, TAP, and fractional Bitcoin, good for the network?

Wuckert says that it depends on how you think about it. He isn’t necessarily a BSV maximalist as many might think—he’s a Bitcoin maximalist first and foremost. He likens BSV to a church spreading its ideas, noting that if BTC adopts those ideas and converts, that’s a good thing.

However, it might not be a good thing from the perspective of someone holding only BSV, hoping it will appreciate in value. Wuckert himself is an entrepreneur in the BSV economy and a speculator with massive skin in the BSV ecosystem.

Ultimately, if BTC changes to a big-block model and allows innovation again, that might not be good for his BSV bags, but it would be good for the technology.

Any idea when the OnlyFans type of platform is launching on BSV?

It takes Wuckert a moment to recall, but he remembers that LaMint is going in that direction. He knows and has interviewed CEO Daniel Street, and as far as he knows, it’s launching imminently.

Wuckert also draws attention to what’s happening with CombatIQ, a BSV startup cataloging fight moves on the blockchain to help figure out the best way to win. They recently signed a deal with the UFC, which is huge news, and it may make it the most successful startup in BSV.

Are there any hardware wallets that support BSV?

There are a few, including Ellipal Titan. Ultimately, a holder could buy a smartphone, download a wallet like Centbee or SimplyCash, store the seed phrase, generate a public key, confirm it with a test transaction, switch it off, and ensure it never goes online again.

Does the argument against scaling Bitcoin trace itself back to previous ideological divides? If so, what is the implication?

Yes, it does, Wuckert confirms. Bitcoin is only novel because of a few things, but the main one is the difficulty adjustment. This is what made Bitcoin’s consensus model competitive and eliminated the need for trust. All previous attempts at digital cash failed because this was lacking.

An oddsmaker would have bet James Donald was right when he told Satoshi Nakamoto Bitcoin wouldn’t scale. Donald’s original arguments are pretty much a summary of BTC’s talking points to this day.

Since Bitcoiners are mostly libertarians who believe in free markets, should SBF have been arrested? At what point does the market self-regulate?

“Sam Bankman-Fried is a thief,” Wuckert answers, differentiating him from an operator who made a mistake. He was accused of and convicted of fraud, meaning he used deception to part people from their money.

While Wuckert acknowledges different types of libertarians, he believes that if someone can’t stop stealing, there’s a moral imperative to stop and punish them. What consequences he faces should be up for debate. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions for all types of libertarians.

Who is Dennis Porter? Does he have any connection with Cøbra?

Porter is the co-founder of the Satoshi Action Fund. Wuckert has heard him speak a few times and has no major gripes with him. He’s a good speaker who makes the case that Bitcoin is ultimately a net good for the environment.

Can we have a Teranode update?

Wuckert says the Teranode team is doing a great job of keeping GorillaPool updated, although he isn’t officially involved with the team. It’s live on Mainnet in a listening capacity and has been mining on Testnet for months.

Aerospike reported billions of transactions per day, with something close to three million per second. The team is bullish, and all issues so far have been dealt with quickly and professionally.

To hear more about a potential silver price increase and much more, check out the podcast via this link.

Watch: Teranode is the future of the Bitcoin network