In a Twitter Space chat, Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder, expressed support for new Bitcoin innovations. He views them as a valuable contrast to the “laser-eye” maximalist trend. Buterin highlighted Ordinals and the BTC-20 token standard as departures from stale Bitcoin politics. He emphasized their potential to bring back a culture of action and push against the laser-eye movement.
With the introduction of Ordinals, Buterin commended the natural reemergence of a building culture, which he sees as a step toward actively carrying out duties inside the network. This change offers a much-appreciated pushback to the laser-eye movement. The discussion, which lasted almost two hours, was mostly concerned with Bitcoin’s scaling problems.
Bitcoin proponent Eric Wall raised concerns about scalability issues in the Lightning Network. He highlighted frequent failures in processing medium-sized payments. Buterin suggested prioritizing the adoption of layer-2 solutions and improving the Bitcoin base layer’s performance. These steps can address scalability concerns within the Bitcoin network.
With the potential to enable smart contracts on the Bitcoin network, the introduction of zero-knowledge rollups was viewed as a potentially major advance. Udi Wertheimer, a key figure behind the Ordinals project Taproot Wizards, suggested that implementing roll-ups could provide Bitcoin with an execution environment for expressive features and DeFi. This could expand the possibilities for DeFi-related activities within the Bitcoin network.
These 2 laser-eye clowns have been running blockstream into the ground for the last decade
In 10 years that company couldn’t come up with a single successful product
Their joke of a blockchain processes 3 txs a day
And they think they have nothing to learn from ethereum pic.twitter.com/mp7we9Lvxq
— Udi Wertheimer (@udiWertheimer) July 6, 2023
Optimistic View of Buterin: Bitcoin’s Evolving Landscape and New Opportunities
Critics have expressed worries about innovations like Ordinals, including Jan3 CEO Samson Mow, claiming that they take up block space that could be utilized for Bitcoin payments. Instead of conducting computations on-chain, Wall asserted that zero-knowledge proofs might act as a “proof system” without clogging the network. This would enable Bitcoin to act as a judge or arbiter of computations.
The exchange sparked debate in the Bitcoin community, with Wertheimer criticizing Blockstream’s CEO and Samson Mow. They made dismissive comments about the conversation with Buterin. Discussions within the community continue regarding the potential for additional functionalities like NFTs and smart contracts on the Bitcoin network. The Bitcoin community actively explores and debates these possibilities.
Despite differing viewpoints, Buterin’s remarks express optimism about Bitcoin’s evolution and its capacity to explore new opportunities beyond its initial purpose as a peer-to-peer cash network. His stance reflects a hopeful outlook on the changing landscape of Bitcoin. The discussion represents ongoing research into scalability and creative cryptocurrency solutions.
