I haven't been into Bitcoin too long (class of 2020), but the culture of late (since the core v30 fallout) has taught me a few things: There's been cultural drift. Standing by the principles of Bitcoin as money and maintaining a hostile, adversarial stance towards fiat, made me just another Bitcoiner. Now I'm a "Bitcoin Puritan" or a "Monetary Maximalist." The fact that these labels became necessary is enough indication the social layer has been corrupted or co-opted. The ambivalence shown by a large segment of the influencers towards BIP-110 is surprising. People I've followed since I started my journey, who shaped my own thinking about Bitcoin have weirdly had their head stuck in the sand. In some way I feel duped, because the principles they preached, they are showing unwillingness to practice themselves when it really matters, and I feel they've been dishonest. There was a shared understanding about what Bitcoin is, and what the mission is. There were beautiful philosophical discussions around Bitcoin, the project the protocol, the incentives, and how it would disrupt the fiat system, go toe-to-toe with it. Now the crowd is full of suitcoiners, those who introduced the idea that Bitcoin would trojan horse the existing system, but in doing so, made numerous trade-off's that gave Bitcoin legitimacy within the structure it's trying to disrupt. Death by a thousand concessions. There was a shared understanding about how Bitcoin governance should work, the role of maintainers, the invisible lines they shouldn't cross. But as exposed in @hodlonaut articles, Core has been captured by technical abstractionists that has opened existential discussions about what Bitcoin is. I say existential because if people no longer know what Bitcoin is for, it is not good for anything. Many influencers are cheerleaders to the narrative that "Bitcoin has already won", "Bitcoin is antifragile" which is a message I was guilty of falling for. Luckily the actions of Core, and people like @GrassFedBitcoin @cguida6 @mattkratter @_MattHill_ @lukedewolf @Princey21M @knutsvanholm and others — who have worked tirelessly to give the much needed pragmatic viewpoint across. They exposed me to the threats from within, as opposed to the conveniently identified threats from the without. In doing so awoken me from the slumber I was in and made me finally run my own knots node and signal for BIP110. I can only be positive about the future of Bitcoin, regardless about what happens tomorrow. With these people in the space and the lines they draw and the principles they refuse to walk back on. And the army of plebs that like me have stood up for Bitcoin as money.