Stephan Livera, host of the “Stephan Livera Podcast” and managing director of Swan Bitcoin International, explains how Bitcoin Maximalists believe their worldview is the ethical, rational and pragmatic stance to take in a world corrupted by fiat currency.
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Really Think About Bitcoin Maximalism
Excellent monetary characteristics
Bitcoin Maximalism is the view that bitcoin will someday be global money, and that we’ll live on a bitcoin standard. It is based on the idea that money is the most marketable good, and that bitcoin has superior monetary qualities.
Most Bitcoin Maximalists believe that Bitcoin is only for monetary purposes and are not interested in non-monetary uses. At times like these, it is clear that the Maximalists were right.
Most Maximalists want clear separation between Bitcoin and all the other stuff. They may act to warn against false promises or gambling on “cryptos”, but they generally want the altcoiners to stop attacking Bitcoin as part of their marketing.
Money substitute
Monetary Maximalism is not Platform Maximalism. Some people believe that everything should be built “on top of” Bitcoin, but others believe that not everything can be built “on top of” Bitcoin.
The Lightning Network is being built on top of Bitcoin, but other projects such as sidechains, federated sidechains, altcoin cross-chain swaps, etc. are also being built on top of Bitcoin. Stablecoins are not really crypto-fiat, but rather money substitutes.
Stablecoins are good for short-term payments, but not for long-term savings. If stablecoins are regulated, they could lose their ease of use and become a stepping stone to government-issued central bank digital currencies.
Monetary premium
Bitcoin Maximalism is boring or is it just consistent? The world needs definancialization, and part of that is sucking out the “monetary premium” that is currently held up in physical properties, stocks or bonds.
Altcoin promoters and apologists will point to the volume of transactions, fees paid, or total value locked (TVL) as reasons why there will be a multi-coin future. But will these people HODL through the big drawdowns, and stack consistently?
Altcoins are building up an “economic engine” but from the Bitcoin monetary maximalist POV, there’s little reason to continue holding utility coins anyway. Bitcoin’s scarcity and overall qualities are valued by people, not transactional flow on altcoin chains.
Monetary properties and decentralization
There are many neutral Bitcoin users who use bitcoin tools without considering themselves part of the bitcoin movement. These users may even use shitcoin wallets like Exodus, which are not popular among maximalists.
The main things that altcoins can’t match are the monetary properties and decentralization of Bitcoin, but they can match the size and quality of the Bitcoin movement, and the community of advocates, educators, builders can drive the direction in terms of what gets built out.
Bitcoin maximalists want to distinguish Bitcoin from crypto and focus on development, building, education and community growth.