The empire strikes back

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For the unengaged, the intergalactic Empire in a galaxy far, far away was formed after a complex coup d’etat was orchestrated by a power-hungry cult that became a hegemonic tyranny by manipulating a greedy trade federation against an inept government and a monkish order of peacekeepers who underestimated their relentless pursuit of power. The cult was called the “Sith,” and they were able to seize the means of production for many of the same reasons that the small blockers were able to take over the BTC Core governance: their only limitation was their own passion to fight for more power and utilization of the dark side of the force.

Amid confusion about rightful leadership and who was committing acts of terrorism around the galaxy, the chancellor Palpatine was able to seduce a young Jedi trainee and manipulate him into helping take the throne of the first intergalactic empire. This trainee became known as “Darth Vader,” the greatest villain of the galaxy. 

Due to the brutality of the constant purity tests and pursuit of resources for the Empire, a resistance arose. Much like in Bitcoin, this rebel alliance was made up of the old guard; the people who remembered the original goals of peace, freedom and prosperity before the dark days brought on by the Sith. That old guard was joined by victims of the Empire’s cruelty along with ideologues who simply believed in freedom even if they had never experienced it. Though smaller in number, the rebels believed in something bigger than themselves, and they were willing to fight for it. I like to think of us BSV’rs as the rebel alliance of Bitcoin.

Few understood that there was a religious significance to their actions, and that a Messiah figure would bring balance to the force, but most simply fought for their own reasons. That Messiah was named Luke Skywalker, and he would eventually bring down that Empire against all odds, but the road to victory was not smooth. 

At the end of the first Star Wars movie, Luke deals a major blow to the Empire when he blows up their greatest weapon: The Death Star. The rebels cheer because of the victorious battle, but the Emperor was still alive, so was Darth Vader. So too were the Stormtrooper NPC army.

This is where BSV was in 2020. The Genesis update and CoinGeek London were cause for celebration. We had finally eliminated the block size limit and unleashed the Bitcoin protocol. I distinctly recall the conference being called a “victory lap,” as we celebrated the incredible things that were going to happen because of the businesses we were going to build, service and disrupt.

But like most wars, the victory of a single battle did not indicate imminent victory in the broader war. In 2020, Gregory Maxwell was still in control of social narratives, the Bitcoin Standard was still being worshipped by anti-fiat zealots, and Michael Saylor was looking for an opportunity to remind Wall St that MicroStrategy stock was worth discussing.

There were a whole bunch of other fundamentals at play, but ultimately, BTC went on a significant bull run that put a ton more buying power into the hands of the people who have spent the last five years refusing to scale and blaming their problems on the big blockers.

The “Strikes Back” part

Amid BSV’s great technical victories, the forces of BTC were awakened. With funding from Mastercard and other old world venture capitalists, the information war was ratcheted up, tether was used to create a ton of paper wealth, and relentless attacks on BSV have become the norm.

In Star Wars, the rebels ultimately rally behind Luke Skywalker, everyone plays their role, and the Empire is defeated in the “Return of the Jedi.” But we aren’t there yet. That’s the third movie, and we are in the middle of movie number two. When the “Empire Strikes Back,” Luke is defeated by Darth Vader. He loses his hand, his best friend is captured by a gangster, and he is forced to abandon his Jedi training just to deal with the onslaught of attacks and subterfuge.

This is where BSV is today. Our enemies have formed coalitions to try to stomp us out! From COPA to Binance, Cobra to Tether, the “double spend” attackers and the entirety of the crypto media: they want us gone. Dead. Obliterated.

The malicious reorganization attacks on the BSV blockchain were simply an act of terrorism meant to scare away investors and dry up liquidity by closing down exchange hubs. They are trying to deal us finishing blows with every swing because we are a threat to their empire!

Do not forget that this is just one more battle in a much broader war. We are fighting for Bitcoin. We are fighting for all knowledge to be secured by proof of work while giving the world a truly free and secure, global monetary system.

Do not be discouraged. We should expect this war to continue for a long time, so we must celebrate the victories and dig deep on days when we take losses. But if we win, we change the world for the better—forever!

Bitcoin Association announced quickly that the honest nodes of the network and the node team were immediately aware of the issue and working hard on mitigation of the threat. I’ll spare you another Star Wars analogy and simply say that times like these indicate how much of a threat we are to the mainstream. We are capable of disrupting EVERYTHING. We need to work for it, but BSV can absolutely unseat those with undue power and give freedom back to its rightful owners.

In response to the ongoing re-organisation attack on the #BSV network, Bitcoin Association recommends that node operators mark the fraudulent chain as invalid.

This will immediately return your node to the chain supported by honest miners and lock the attacker’s chain out.

1/2

— BSV Association (@BSV_Assn) August 3, 2021

For me, that makes it all worth it.

Ok, one more Star Wars meme!