What will happen on Aug 1st? What will happen on July 21st, 23d, 25th, 29th and 31st? They’re all dates you should know if you’re interested in Bitcoin and they all have to do with scaling the network to make it more accessible to more users. They all have to do with the activation of an upgrade to the Bitcoin protocol called Segregated Witness. My previous article on the subject focused on controlling your own private keys in the case of a chain split. Good advice regardless of what date it is or what any actor is trying to do to the network. You can easily find information on BIP91, BIP141 and BIP148 elsewhere if you’re interested, so what I what I intend to emphasize here is something more lighthearted yet at least equally important. In the words of the great Bobby McFerrin:

Don’t worry, be happy

Good advice regardless of what date it is or what any actor is trying to do to the Bitcoin network, or any other network for that matter. There’s a very high probability that Bitcoin will survive any attempted chain split, that the consensus rules will work as intended and that any business dependent on the functionality of the network will simply follow the money. It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks about it, it’s not a democracy, it’s the follow up to democracy. When the price is low — buy more, when the price is high — enjoy. A high price means more Bitcoin millionaires and with that comes more promotion. A low price is a great opportunity to get on the train. To get your friends on the train. Is the volatility high? Good, more news! Is the volatility low? Good, a more stable currency! When we see a huge price drop like we just did it’s almost always fear, uncertainty and doubt that scares people into selling their coin. Yes, you should know what you’re doing but no, you shouldn’t be afraid to embrace this revolutionary technology. Fear has never empowered anyone. Fear keeps the ducks in line and Bitcoin isn’t linear.

The earlier you bought, the higher the risk you took. The higher risk you took, the bigger the profit and in some cases, the bigger your influence. If you’re a miner and you’re willing to stall development in order to take advantage of a temporary fee market, you’re taking a huge risk. You must be very confident that the network will survive in the long run to ever be able to profit from the extra income you made and this might be what we’ve seen in the last year or two. Participants so confident in the longevity of the network that they’re willing to gamble with their credibility. After all, they might not need it in the future when trust is truly decentralized.