Do not believe the maximum: Bitcoin cannot be separated from crypto

If you have ever dared to criticize the crypto world, you will probably have received some charming complaints. They were probably told that they should "have fun staying poor" because they "will never make it"; Her criticism was probably dismissed as mere "fud" (fear, uncertainty and doubt); And they may have been informed that they are actually nothing more than a "salty no-coin".

But there is a different more sophisticated variant of counter -criticism, which nowadays finds the way into my inbox with increasing regularity. It usually begins with something that should appease-a kind of agreement that is immoral, a fraud or a version of a Ponzi schemas. But then it quickly changes the course to explain that none of it bitcoin applies.

Bitcoin, the bitcoiners tell me, is not a crypto. And, understand, crypto bad, Bitcoin good. Very, very good.

"Bitcoin is a lifeline for so many people around the world," said an altruistic Bitcoin owner recently. "Please stop throwing it into a pot with crypto, which is morally reprehensible."

I recently suggested that a possibility of practicing the art of "intellectual humility" is to "steal" the Position of your opponents - that is, instead of finding your weakest points and argue against it, you present the strongest version of your arguments. And that's why I will try to apply this technology here before I explain why I think they are wrong.

Why do the so-called "Bitcoin Maximalists"-the purists who argue that Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency that has a value-this claim? They explain that the organic way of how Bitcoin has arisen cannot be replicated and that Bitcoin can be copied, but always has a first-mover advantage and therefore cannot be stopped.

You also point out that there was no market for Bitcoin when it was invented, and so the network was not entertained for profit reasons, but by people who believed in the value of the system - in contrast to later coins, some of which were spent on large ones. Bitcoin did not arise to make money, but from a libertarian internet subculture that believed that technology, especially cryptography, was the key to driving social and political change.

Maximumists also say that Bitcoin's incentive mechanism, the energy-intensive "Proof of Work" Mining process, from which the Rival Ethereum only moved out last week, is the only way to ensure a really decentralized system.

But while you can see why bitcoiners might be interested in distance yourself from the abundance of fraud and mistakes that have occurred in Cryptoland, their arguments do not withstand.

Firstly, it doesn't matter where Bitcoin comes from-the people who drive it forward now have the same financial incentives as those who drive other crypto tokens. Satoshi Nakamoto, the Creator of Bitcoin, could have intended to use it as money, but it does not do it - it does not meet any of the necessary criteria and instead works in a pyramid structure that is dependent on constantly recruiting new members.

Secondly, Bitcoin is actually not decentralized-miners not only merging into "mining pools", but also assets are extremely concentrated. On Tuesday, Microstrategy announced that he had bought another 301 bitcoins, which means that this company alone now holds almost 0.7 percent of the total offer.

Thirdly, a “first-mover advantage” does not always stop. Other crypto tokens already have various properties that Bitcoin has, and it was again spoken of a "flipping" in which the value of Ethereum overtakes that from Bitcoin, since the former have switched to a less carbon-intensive form of mining.

After all, there is not even agreement on what Bitcoin is. For the vast majority, the digital coin is also known as "BTC", currently changing the owner at around $ 19,000. But there are other versions that have split off, like that of Craig Wright, the man who claims to be Satoshi and he says that BTC is a fraud.

The real reason why Bitcoin Maximalists want to separate Bitcoin from the rest of the cryptotot technology is to create the illusion of scarcity in a world in which there is none. Coinmarketcap now lists more than 21,000 different crypto tokens called Bitcoin Maximalists "Shitcoins". Of course you do this - if there is an infinite offer, how can there be any value? This is still the core problem of crypto, and Bitcoin cannot solve it.

That shouldn't mean that there are not some crypto projects and tokens that are better than others. But a spade, no matter how shiny, is still a spade. And Bitcoin, I'm afraid, is still crypto.

jemima.kelly@ft.com