35+ years software & systems engineering, networking, & security. Christian, husband, father, and business owner. Bitcoin node runner & home miner. BIP-110!
Here's the thing about @mattkratter, it took him a long time to understand #Bitcoin. Just like it did for most of us who now call ourselves Bitcoin maximalists.
As far as I can tell, over the course of his understanding he went from ignoring Bitcoin, to trading it, to playing with shitcoins, and finally to becoming a toxic bitcoin maximalist.
You know what I haven't seen from him?
I haven't seen any sign of selling his name to a sponsor.
I haven't seen him use his position as a bitcoin maxi to promote a bitcoin affinity scam or layer 2 nonsense.
I haven't seen him grift his way into a bullshit position as a BiTcOiN AdViSoR at some second rate Bitcoin trashury company.
In other words, all I have seen from him is a steady, progressive, and irreversible understanding of Bitcoin as money, a refusal to budge from that stance, and a willingness to put his name and reputation on the line to keep Bitcoin the hardest money man will ever know.
The Bitcoin space would benefit from more bitcoiners like Matt.
IMO, there is a reason @adam3us and @saylor invited @mattkratter to rub elbows with the high priests of Bitcoin.
They wanted to make sure he was going to toe the line.
They wanted to be able to put social pressure on him to ensure, when the time came, he was going to parrot the talking points just like every other captured influencer.
Fortunately for bitcoiners, Matt is made of stronger stuff.
Hi Anthony,
Since you did not reply to my DM about right of reply questions for my last article, I will try to reach you here.
On the topic of spam and spammers:
May 2, 2025: instagibbs files the OP_RETURN uncap PR #32406. Eleven seconds after the bot announces it in #bitcoin-core-dev IRC channel, instagibbs writes "fanquake please lock for now."
fanquake locks the PR within the same minute. You then add the "Needs release note" label to the now-locked PR.
Fifteen minutes later you joke on IRC about labels being a way to "inscribe comments via github label edits."
Four operational acts by three devs that were instrumental in the OP_RETURN uncap sequence, inside a sixteen-minute window. The PR was filed, lock-requested, locked, and label-administered before any community engagement could begin.
Four questions:
1: Was the sequence prearranged?
2: Do you consider this a proper and responsible way to conduct Bitcoin development on a contested protocol change?
3: Considering the great controversy and polarization, was your inscription joke fitting for the moment?
4: The same three of you, you and instagibbs and fanquake, ACKed and merged PR #27832 in June and August 2023, the documentation amendment that narrowed the scope of -datacarriersize, later used to close Luke's filter patch. The same three then executed the May 2 sequence on and around the PR that would uncapOP_RETURN. Coincidence?
He said "I’ve met several who found Bitcoin by way of the digital credit instruments"...found. I said understand originally. I also said I haven't met anyone that have come to understand bitcoin by way of "digital credit" and I speak to a lot of people. To almost all not yet in bitcoin, it is a bonafide source of confusion.
Listen to how it's sold "we turn bitcoin into money". That was a literal Strategy post. They call it digital credit. When it is preferred equity. Saylor has been on record being critical and antagonistic to bitcoin payments.
The incentive for people that run these companies is to get people to buy their securities, not bitcoin...while marketing themselves as champions of bitcoin. The people who own these securities and shill them have an incentive to get people to buy the securities, not bitcoin.
The gaslighting about the miracle that is digital "credit" and the lack of honesty about the real, direct economic incentives at play is the problem that I'm criticizing.
I just released a 4 hour rip with @mattkratter on my new YouTube channel.
https://t.co/BaScahX4Ex
Matt covers a lot of ground in this one. Check it out and subscribe!
Three thoughts after watching this:
1. @mattkratter is extremely intelligent and anyone who argues otherwise is an idiot
2. This should be required viewing for all bitcoiners no matter your ideology
3. Saylor has introduced Wall St-esque risk to bitcoin on a colossal scale
If Bitcoin is not optimized for financial activity, people will transact off chain using trusted third parties, and the blockchain will increasingly consist of junk data no one wants to store.
The assertion that Bitcoiners will out-price spammers is contrary to all evidence.