Over the last few years, the Bitcoin community has seen a drastic transformation from being one of unity, friendship, inclusiveness, and shared values into a fractured husk of what it once was. Today people are always at each other’s throats, assuming ill-intent, casually slandering one another, and organizing attacks against “the other team.”

I’ll admit that I’ve been guilty of some of this. I think most of us have. It’s an easy trap to fall into when the general culture of the industry and community have become so toxic and flame wars are now the primary mode of discussion. The collateral damage that’s been done to the Bitcoin community as a result of this shift has been massive.

It wasn’t so long ago that Bitcoiners were united in the common cause of disrupting the global financial house of cards by way of our revolutionary new invention. Today we are too busy concerning ourselves about who was an asshole on Twitter that we seem to have forgotten who our real competition is. The constant in-fighting has pushed new developers and new innovations to other platforms.

We’ve seen character assassinations targeted towards once-revered members of our community. Gavin, Mike, Jeff, Roger… the contributions these guys have made to Bitcoin, especially in the early days, is immeasurable. Today, some people spit at the mention of their names and speak of them as though they are mentally unsound lunatics out to destroy Bitcoin. On the other side, the very real contributions of guys like Greg and Luke are ignored as they are transformed into sinister cartoon villains who are also out to destroy Bitcoin.

In reality, all of these people have devoted years of their lives to working towards the advancement of Bitcoin. We may fiercely disagree on certain things, and we may believe that someone’s own vision for Bitcoin would be detrimental to the system as a whole, but the assertions that any of these people are trying to sabotage the system out of malice are hysterical and ridiculous.

Yet any time some prominent community member “steps out of line” and says something that runs against the prevailing current of thought, they find themselves crucified in the court of public opinion. Not just individuals, but companies as well. It’s happened to Gavin Andresen, Mike Hearn, Brian Armstrong and Coinbase, Joseph Poon, Purse.io, Bitpay, Bitmain, Roger Ver, and many more. The result of all of this is a sort of chilling effect where people are afraid to speak their minds and are far less transparent about their plans and their thinking.

Then we have the casual xenophobia and racism. One of the most amazing things about Bitcoin is that it is both global and permissionless. Today it is easy to find people throwing around accusations, mostly directed towards the Chinese, that being from a certain country makes one’s motives suspect and that anything they do must therefore be against the common interests of Bitcoin.

I discovered Bitcoin while living in China, got my start in the Bitcoin industry there, and I still travel to China every month or two to keep up with what’s going on there. I know most of the “usual suspects” on a personal level. I have my own disagreements with some of them, but I’ve known them for years and will vouch that they are heavily invested in the success of Bitcoin and are normal entrepreneurs like everyone else. Most of them are old school Bitcoiners and have been in the space for many years. They’re not clueless and they’re not misguided. Rather than dismissing their ideas as irrelevant and influenced by their country’s government, we should be listening to them as a very important part of the Bitcoin community. Also, most of them are hardcore libertarians.

I’d also like to address the rampant censorship issue that plagues many prominent Bitcoin communication channels. Never in a million years would I have imagined that so many people in the Bitcoin community could become so complacent, accepting, and in some cases even supportive of the suppression of free discussion and information. Regardless of one’s stance on the bitcoin scaling debate, everybody should reject discussion channels that hide massive amounts of information based on the arbitrary whims of the moderators. Sadly, this paragraph alone probably means this post will never see the light of day on /r/bitcoin.

The contention and anger in the Bitcoin community is not something that will go away overnight, but actively working to build a community culture that values respect, integrity, intellectual honesty, and the free flow of information will, over time, start to make a big difference. Disagreement is perfectly fine, but let’s not treat those we disagree with as enemies.

Solutions:

Cut out the ad-hominem attacks. There are plenty of merit based arguments to be made without resorting to talking about so-and-so’s beard, religious beliefs, or emotional outbursts. Reddit has buttons for expressing approval or disapproval (distinct from agreement or disagreement). Use them. Call people out when they engage in poor behavior. This doesn’t need to be hostile or rude; just give them a gentle reminder that their behavior is contributing to a toxic environment. Call things by their real names. How hard is it to say “Bitcoin,” “Bitcoin Cash,” and “Ethereum?” It’s easier and more intellectually honest than saying “CrippleCoin,” “bcash,” or “VitalikCoin.” I cannot recommend enough that everyone install the Reddit Enhancement Suite browser extension. Some elements of the community appear to be operating in bad faith and will not be changed by appeals to reason. RES’s vote tracking and user tagging makes it very apparent who these people are. I don’t care where you stand on the block size debate, being opposed to censorship should be the one thing that’s easy for everyone to agree on. I know /r/btc has a reputation for being politicized and one sided, but posts aren’t deleted for sharing unpopular or inconvenient truths. If your arguments are sound, you will be able to garner support on a level playing field. Opt-in to the Reddit censorship notifier bot. Click this link to view a pre-filled PM form that opts you in to this service.

Debate and disagreement are normal, healthy parts of any community. None of this is to say that everyone needs to hold hands and sing Kum ba ya under a rainbow. Let’s just hold ourselves and each other to a higher standard of online behavior.