This is an editorial opinion by Heidi Porter, entrepreneur with 35 years in the technology industry.
I love Bitcoin – and the world helped by Bitcoin – as much as most passionate Bitcoiners do. So, I want to do and say things that help me succeed. This desire is not unique.
However, sometimes it doesn’t feel productive, is productive.
Constructive criticism is productive discourse for Bitcoin. Shows wrong assumptions is productive discourse for Bitcoin. Calculate the danger is productive discourse for Bitcoin. Call out the hypocrisy of goal versus action is (or can) productive discourse.
That said, criticism is illogical or unreasonable not productive discourse. Criticize it because you haven’t done the work to understand it not productive discourse. Appealing to authority or intuition versus well-researched information is not productive discourse. Refuse to understand different use cases for different people not productive discourse.
I think most people would agree in theory with the above. But then, we are human. Our wants, needs and emotions get in the way.
Take criticism no don’t feel good. Giving criticism – regardless of merit – feels good. Direct or short-term gratification is not feel good. It’s part of the incentive in business to be human.
As a result, the noise is amplified and the signal is de-amplified. The result is that the wisest and most prophetic people in Bitcoin are often rejected or ignored. Or taken. This shoot-the-messenger behavior has nothing to do with price.
The messenger was shot in the cattle market. The messenger was shot in a bear market. The messenger was shot in the market sideways. The messenger was just… shot.
Those full of bullets know who they are. They repeat themselves, over and over. Let’s go back and look at just a few of these messages:
- If you want bitcoin for people’s safety as well as freedom and human rights, don’t post public photos without people’s consent.
- If you want people to be physically safe using Bitcoin, stop sharing information with third-party marketing companies that don’t meet the security requirements for Bitcoin customers. At the very least, it requires a separate customer email for use in the marketing system versus account access or downloads.
- If you want to decentralize miners around the world, stop pushing excessive mining in your cities, companies and countries.
- If you want privacy, don’t cry if someone gives you complete privacy if it’s not true.
- If your organization’s mission is to “defend civil liberties in the digital world,” then you should speak up when a bill is introduced. See you, Electronic Frontier Foundation.
- If you want people to put their money to good use, don’t tell them to open up their credit cards or house mortgages to put all their money into bitcoin and HODL.
- If you want a peaceful revolution, definitely do not suggest that Bitcoin is analogous to weapons.
- If you want people to understand Bitcoin, don’t make irrational equations to explain it. In a recent Bitcoin Magazine article, Stephen Livera wrote about this issue.
- (Dear reader, insert another If-then point here.)
If you don’t think the above is important, then the man of steel is the argument above. Except for the last one, all of the above pose a real threat to people’s physical safety and security. All these points are part of what people claim is the purpose of Bitcoin.
Human incentives often act from short-term or immediate gratification rather than looking at long-term consequences or results. It requires simple research, hard work and efforts in discourse to solve the above problems as well as other technical and business problems that are raised and need to be solved.
For 2023, let’s not take a productive message or his messenger. Instead, let’s take a good look at short-term incentives and gratification – and align them better with the desired goals for Bitcoin…
..to make the year happier for others, not just a few.
This is a guest post by Heidi Porter. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.