Let's be categorically clear and pragmatic here, if BIP-110 had "broad support from the community", it would not have stalled like it did. Whether any of us like it or not, Bitcoin is the sum of its constituents (nodes, miners etc). You have far more knowledge of the protocol than I, but its disingenuous to say that "the industry rejected what the community wanted". You guys are going to hard fork yourselves to be the next Bitcoin Cash and that is just sad. Core can do a lot better, I will never not agree with that, but this is just hard to grasp.

TODAY ON THE STARTING BLOCK: We've got @deacix from @1inch in the Hot Seat today to talk about the launch of 1inch Aqua - which is bringing an innovative approach to liquidity to the DeFi ecosystem. Join us live now on @TheBlockCo 👇

Will agentic trading eventually suffer diminishing returns? It's a question I put to @nansen_ai founder @ASvanevik - who's mega bullish on trading agents. "Agent have different inputs, they can consume different information. There are different models. In 2 years we're going to see a flippening in how people trade." Full interview from The Starting Block in the comments 👇 @TheBlockPods @TheBlockCo

"It's empirically true that @blknoiz06 has revived the trenches." @nansen_ai CEO @ASvanevik says platform analytics show solana:9cRCn9rGT8V2imeM2BaKs13yhMEais3ruM3rPvTGpump bucked the trend of short-lived memecoin attention. However, he thinks RWA/securities trading is really driving renewed trading volumes on Solana.

I care deeply about Bitcoin & wonder why the smartest protocol founders ultimately moved away from Bitcoin. I asked @IOHK_Charles why. He explains why @VitalikButerin, @bytemaster7 & other Ethereum builders stopped trying to build Bitcoin-based infrastructure. Full 📺 👇

If ever you doubted that Bitcoin has a raison d'etre 👇 "Bitcoin already has the only narrative it needs. Governments continue to spend more than they collect, central banks continue to debase currencies to sustain the system, and people everywhere continue to need a form of money that cannot be printed, censored, frozen, or altered for the benefit of the powerful." Looking forward to having @CorySwan on The Starting Block today to talk about Bitcoin! Join us on @TheBlockCo at 8:30am ET!

THE STARTING BLOCK: Jam-packed show with @k06a chatting about leaving @1inch and his new project @tier_xyz Then we've got @jito_labs @buffalu__ founder in the Hot Seat to dive into the launch of @jtx_trade on @solana Join us live @TheBlockCo

We're live on The Starting Block! Join us as we have a wide ranging conversation with @NEARProtocol co-founder @ilblackdragon! Privacy/confidentiality, AI agents & more! Join us on @TheBlockCo now!

Today on The Starting Block: @coinbase UK director @kmgrose unpacks their new license to offer derivatives & equities. Then we'll dive into a new Cambridge report on Ethereum electricity consumption changes with @alexneumueller. We're live 📺

What’s the backstory behind the biggest beef in crypto? OKX founder Star Xu has been vocally critical of Binance & CZ over the years. So I asked CZ for his perspective on his time at OKX & the public feud that ensued after CZ launched his book. Full 🎥👇

I’m incredibly proud to launch The Starting Block with an exclusive live interview with @cz_binance from Abu Dhabi. @TheBlockCo officially has a new live daily show! If you missed the interview with the @binance founder - check out the stream below.

Any idiot can give money away, and the same amount of problems remain as before. This is midwits celebrating mediocrity. If $26b was invested into startups that resulted in net new 1 trillion of productive capital, roughly 1 million people would have been permanently lifted out of poverty globally. As any Soviet child can tell you, the emancipation of the proletariat can only be achieved by a massive increase of productive forces. Any spending that doesn’t result in an economic surplus destroys the capital basis that the proletariat revolution can be built.

I've come full circle on the Bitcoin spam / Core vs. Knots debate. At first, my knee-jerk reaction was: Spam on the blockchain sucks. Particularly the more nefarious type. It's horrifying, as far as I'm concerned. And the Knots crowd seem to wanna do something about it, while the other side didn't. Therefore, I should support Knots. I've since learned that none of what the Knots side proposed will actually stop spam. This is an objective fact. And, if they weren't going to fork the network, I might still have supported their effort, just because attempting to stop spam, even if you think it isn't possible, seems like a better attitude. I'm not a big fan of people who don't do anything about a problem because they think there is no solution. That being said, changing the network's consensus rules is a step too far. I lived through the blocksize war. It's risky. And it may have been a worthwhile pursuit if it actually solved the problem. But, by their own admission, BIP110 doesn't solve the problem, spam would still be possible on-chain. And, by their own admission, what this fork really is, is an expression of their unhappiness. Bitcoin is money, obviously. But it is permissionless money. And if that means we cannot actually stop people from using it for other purposes, as despicable as those may be, throwing your toys out of the cot without actually achieving anything concrete, seems like a counterproductive, juvenile, and pointless pursuit.

I have young children. If they died of heatstroke because the government told me I can’t use an air conditioner, what happens then? We have absolutely lost the plot. This is a small example where policy/politics takes over pragmatism.

@gazza_jenks For many people, Bitcoin isn't just about price, it's about having an alternative. Financial sovereignty, censorship resistance, and a fixed supply are why so many continue to believe in it. Time will tell, but the conversation is bigger than charts.

Boomer arrogance saying Bitcoin doesn’t have value because they’re privileged enough to not feel the sting of inflation. Or the sting of a government seizing assets or stopping you from spending money how you want. Bitcoin is freedom because it is devoid of centralized control. That’s the entire value proposition. I’ll happily take the chance to be wrong, but I won’t be saving in dollars, or any other fiat currency for the long term. I don’t trust those keeping us enslaved through the monetary system.

It's not exactly news, but, here goes: From 1 July, I'm moving on from @Cointelegraph (and, to be clear and transparent on this, I was NOT laid off). I achieved my goals set for myself, and a girl always knows when it's a good time to leave on top. This is going to be a thread.