Bitcoin isn’t a ‘magical anarcho-capitalist Swiss army knife’: Nick Szabo

Bitcoin whitethorn not beryllium arsenic resilient to web attacks arsenic astir think, according to Bitcoin pioneer Nick Szabo, who argues that portion Bitcoin is simply a trust-minimized network, it isn’t wholly trustless and tin inactive beryllium “attacked” by nation-states and corporations. 

In a station to X connected Sunday, Szabo explained that each cryptocurrency and furniture 1 web has a “legal attack” aboveground that enables them to beryllium disrupted by governments.

Thinking Bitcoin oregon immoderate blockchain protocol is simply a “magical anarcho-capitalist Swiss service weapon that tin withstand immoderate benignant of governmental onslaught successful immoderate ineligible country is insanity,” helium said. 

Szabo’s insights transportation value successful the crypto assemblage arsenic helium was an aboriginal pioneer of astute contracts. Some adjacent speculate that helium could secretly beryllium Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, fixed that helium developed the thought of Bit Gold successful 1988. However, Szabo has publically refuted claims that helium is Nakamoto. 

Source: Nick Szabo

In a rebuttal post, Szabo said enactment against Bitcoin miners, node operators and wallet work providers could beryllium coordinated successful jurisdictions that uphold the regularisation of law.

Szabo was specifically talking about “arbitrary data” and the quality to delete definite content, should regulators unit web participants to manipulate the network.

Ordinals, Runes TXs are astatine the basal of Szabo’s concerns

It ties into the months-long Bitcoin Cores vs Knots statement implicit whether definite non-financial contented — specified arsenic pictures, videos, and audio — done Ordinals, Runes, and BRC-20 transactions has a spot successful the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Related: Can Zcash’s emergence revive the Bitcoin OP_CAT discussion?

The past fewer months person seen Bitcoin Knots seizure a considerably larger marketplace stock of Bitcoin node validators aft immoderate Bitcoiners expressed disappointment successful Bitcoin Core developers implementing the arguable OP_RETURN function that increases the magnitude of “spam” flooding the Bitcoin network.

Nick Szabo’s comments garner criticism

Szabo’s comments were criticized by respective Bitcoiners, including Chris Seedor, the CEO of Bitcoin effect retention supplier Seedor, who said Szabo was overestimating the powerfulness that speculative “legal boogeymen” possess.

“Bitcoin's resilience was ne'er astir predicting each imaginable domain of instrumentality — it was astir minimizing method points wherever coercion tin bite,” Seedor said, arguing that regulators would person unopen down PGP, Tor, and different protocols if they could have.

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