This is a big issue for some... I'm talking about 'Toxic' people in the Bitcoin Cash community. Is it a problem? What can we do about it? In this article I'm going to tell you exactly what we can and should do about it.

First of all, can we define "toxic"? It could mean people that a) have a bad attitude b) are stirring up drama c) are trying to push the protocol in a bad direction d) are blocking others from taking the protocol in a good direction e) are causing trouble in other ways.

As you can already see, even trying to define the problem brings up the fact that sometimes people just disagree about what is best for Bitcoin Cash. I see far too much personal attacks on people who just happen to disagree.

Like I said in a previous article, being involved in protocol development (either as a dev directly or even as a miner, business, or other ecosystem participant) is inevitably going to involve politics and conflict. We're not all going to agree all the time. And that's not bad. It's part of the nature of a decentralized system. Heck, we don't even have to like each other (although it helps). One thing everyone needs to realize is that this is an open permissionless system. You cannot stop anyone from working on Bitcoin Cash. You cannot kick anyone out. But that being said, how DO we deal with people that we think are not helping influence the mindshare or collective consciousness in BCH? There's 2 things:

Solution #1: Stop Feeding the Drama

First of all, if there's people you don't agree with, and you can't have a rational, calm discussion over it...then stop participating in the drama! You can't exclude people from the project, but you can ignore them. And when people are ignored, it takes away their power of influence. A lot of people won't do this, because they actually secretly (or not secretly) enjoy the drama and love to complain.

Solution #2: We Need More Voices

There's a few major personalities (famous people) in BCH. We need more voices, more opinions, more people with blogs, youtube channels, podcasts, websites. I give credit to people like the BCH Boys, who are basically starting from scratch, and building a social media brand. Being on twitter/reddit/yours is not enough. If you really aren't satisfied with the major personalities, you can do something about it and become an authority yourself. Again, people like to gripe, but rarely do they take action. Griping gives instant gratification. Putting on a podcast week after week is hard work.