The block size debate has made clear what Bitcoiner’s value most: adoption and growth. It seems these Bitcoin values have trumped the mere survival of the Bitcoin market. As many Bitcoin experts (like Gavin Andresen) have noted thus far in the block size debate, Bitcoin can survive as is, the only thing which the block size limit could deter is growth and adoption.

This is not an option for Bitcoiners who have based their perception of Bitcoin on ever-increasing price returns. Often in the community people note that they Bitcoin is going “to the moon,” meaning its price is sure to skyrocket. The infamous Bitcoin mock community, Buttcoin, host a Reddit community where there is no option to downvote, only upvote, mocking Bitcoin’s “to the moon” mentality.

This expectation, of perpetually increasing returns based on the increase of the Bitcoin price, has created a blind spot for Bitcoiners who, instead of promoting the harmony and survival of the Bitcoin, believe that growth is how to achieve this. This is not true, and a breakdown in their understanding of the Bitcoin protocol and how it works.

How did growth and adoption become so important? This begins long before the Bitcoin community. Civilizations have generally always valued expansion, especially in the modern world. As the individuals educated by this longview historical process, we ourselves have been taught to want progress, want growth, whether that be an ever-improved television set or the expectation of ever-increasing gains from speculative endeavors, such as is expected all too often by investors of the stock market.

Perpetual expansion and growth is not the way in which systems work. Anarchy is much more present in our day-to-day lives than is generally accepted. This is true of the natural world, of which we are a part. Modern evolutionists do not believe “natural selection” to be the sole process by which evolution unfolds. Instead, they’ve accepted that “anarchy selection” plays just as big a role – those being unexpected events on evolutionary timelines.

A lack of understanding about this anarchic model of reality has led so-called bitcoiners to be uncomfortable with the notion that the evolution of bitcoin might not be the sort of “to the moon” walk in the park they’ve come to expect. They want unfettered growth and adoption. This is a wholly unrealistic proposition, especially coming from an industry made up, in large part, by non-programmers taking part in the Bitcoin experiment not via raw Bitcoin, but via third-party intermediaries (exchanges, hearsay etc.).

The bitcoin industry should better accept the nature of reality; chaotic, unpredictable and unfair. Once they do that, their focus in Bitcoin can shift from growth and adoption to the mere survival of the online creation community that is Bitcoin.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are solely that of the author and do not represent those of, nor should the be attributed to CCN.com.

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