> Bitcoin's value does come from the community and authority of the chain
Agree it isn’t a dig. But it’s a refutation of a common argument in favour of crypto, namely, that it’s protected by math, not custom.
Agree it isn’t a dig. But it’s a refutation of a common argument in favour of crypto, namely, that it’s protected by math, not custom.
Now, irrelevant of what you think of those, the community can, and has changed the way Bitcoin works.
And, as such, it can also change what math it uses, if it so wishes. So the math ultimately depends on the community.
The community ultimately chooses which fork you run if you want to actually participate in a monetary system. Really, that's all this argument is -- any currency exists within a monetary system that is willed into existence by its participants, and no amount of maths will ever change that. It's not like gold had much use for the majority of its history, and yet it became the dominant currency.
There isn't one true coin protected by math. An unlimited number of coins can be created between different groups of people. Math protects each coin.
If you say flu is caused by a virus, it's not wrong. But flu is also caused by weak immune system, human interaction, lack of UV lights everywhere, evolution, among other reasons.