TL;DR: Jeffrey Tucker is back for round two of our talk, extending from his latest book, The Market Loves You: Why You Should Love It Back. The second half of the discussion involves Tucker’s take on the cryptocurrency ecosystem right now, and how toxic tribes have become. He’s even lost friendships over his criticism of bitcoin core (BTC) as no longer having use as a currency due to high transaction fees and slow confirmation times. This episode is available embedded in the article below, and on YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Radio Public, Breaker, PocketCasts, PodBean, and Overcast.

Jeffrey Tucker on Bitcoin Maximalism and Losing Friends

It’s only fitting as we publish this discussion with Tucker that he is currently embroiled in a Twitter spat … over comments related to BTC maximalists. We swear that wasn’t timed. But do click on the thread and its accompanying comments. They go to the heart of what Tucker is trying to point out.

I'm finally realizing that these vicious crypto-wars on Twitter are really driven by BTC hodlers who are against any and all competition. They see everything not BTC ueber alles as hurting their portfolio price. Didn't realize this until this week. — Jeffrey A Tucker (@jeffreyatucker) June 23, 2019

Since he has a larger profile than most in the cryptocurrency community, and is in heavy demand for speaking at conferences and for general punditry on the subject, tribes want to claim him. They’ll often ask his position on this or that project. Tucker wants them to bloom, in a sense, for a playful competition to take place. We simply cannot know how all this will shake out, what digital money will become detached from its usual state creators and bureaucratic managers.

When asked if he was a maximalist, he assured he was: a competition maximalist. Users and investors and businesses get to decide which makes the most sense for them. Bitcoin core (BTC) simply changed over the years, and Tucker doesn’t so much argue against that fact as state it — those who’re driving the project now have a clear agenda away from merchant adoption and medium of exchange use cases. BTC is all about, of course, digital gold. That’s part of Tucker’s competition maximalist ecumenism, but that doesn’t mean he has to like it, as he explains in this very revealing interview.

LINKS

The CoinSpice Podcast 34

Host C. Edward Kelso

Jeffrey Tucker Twitter

The Market Loves You on Amazon

AIER

Listen to Part 1

LISTEN

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