Dear Robert Breedlove,

As much genius as there is to what Bitcoin is. Bitcoin is the wampum of digital currencies, not the end state. Bitcoin CAN be considered as digital gold. Representing a highly secure and definitively scarce resource that has claimed the hearts and minds of individuals globally as the first digital currency.

Government facilitated digital currencies are coming. Unless there is a monetary asset that carries greater capability of onboarding the masses, the fight for a decentralized global reserve currency will be lost.

First we’ll get into the scaling problem of Bitcoin, and then existing narratives in the works.

Bitcoin was not set up for the scale it has achieved and fails as a inexpensive, and fast means of transacting. The supposed “Lightning Network” built in order to combat this problem has been a major failure in terms of security and reliability.

https://twitter.com/sethforprivacy/status/1522919244253614081

https://twitter.com/abrkn/status/1177857657337724928?s=21

https://twitter.com/DavidShares/status/1101524232033439744

https://twitter.com/DoctorOrrery/status/1503317804577325056

Lightning Network is not only a joke (eg. https://np.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/qx4vnq/see_lightning_works_narrator_no_doesnt_breeze_ceo/ ) but there are other more serious problems than the lack of onboarding capacity on the Lightning Network. People had lost their money on the lightning network due to security flaws. Thanks to BitcoinXio for making this compilation.

Researchers Uncover Bitcoin ‘Attack’ That Could Slow or Stop Lightning Payments https://www.coindesk.com/researchers-uncover-bitcoin-attack-that-could-slow-or-stop-lightning-payments

Andreas Brekken: “I’ve been asked quite a bit why I took down the largest Lightning Network node, LN.shitcoin.com. Constant anxiety was the deciding factor. > When a channel is created, the receiver of the channel was not required to verify the amount of the funding transaction” https://old.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/dae1g0/andreas_brekken_ive_been_asked_quite_a_bit_why_i/

Lightning Network Security Vulnerability Full Disclosure: CVE-2019-12998 / CVE-2019-12999 / CVE-2019-13000 https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/lightning-dev/2019-September/002174.html

Lightning Network dev: “We’ve confirmed instances of the CVE being exploited in the wild. If you’re not on the following versions of either of these implementations then you need to upgrade now to avoid risk of funds loss” https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/lightning-dev/2019-September/002148.html

Lightning Network security alert: Security issues have been found in various lightning projects which could cause loss of funds! https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/lightning-dev/2019-August/002130.html

“PSA: The Lightning Network is being heavily data mined right now. Opening channels allows anyone to cluster your wallet and associate your keys with your IP address.” https://old.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/budmfh/on_twitter_psa_the_lightning_network_is_being/

Forget 18 months: it’s now 30-50 years until Lightning Network is ready https://old.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/bh1gzw/forget_18_months_its_now_3050_years_until/

Analysis Shows Lightning Network Suffers From Trust Issues Exacerbated by Rising Fees https://news.bitcoin.com/analysis-shows-lightning-network-suffers-form-trust-issues-exacerbated-by-rising-fees/

Lightning users must be online to make a payment, funds must be locked to use, is a honey pot, completion rate deminishes with high value payments, and more https://medium.com/starkware/when-lightning-starks-a90819be37ba

TIL that Lightning Network conceptual design and focus to layer 2 scaling for BTC was introduced in February 2013, over 6 years ago (LN whitepaper released February 2015, 4 years ago) https://old.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/b201kd/til_that_lightning_network_conceptual_design_and/

“Out of the 1,500 orders submitted on the first day [using Lightning Network], only around 10 percent were successful” https://breakermag.com/i-ordered-lightning-pizza-and-lived-to-tell-the-tale/

Lightning Network has become a complete train wreck. Oh by the way, it’s no longer 18 months but YEARS until it’s ready for mass-consumption. https://old.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/aw71q8/lightning_network_has_become_a_complete_train/

Decentralized path routing is still an unsolved problem for Lightning Network (currently “source routing” works at this scale) https://old.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/avt6ow/do_people_agree_with_andreas_antonopoulos_that/

Lightning Network bank-wallet is “kind of centralized but it has to be this way if you want mass-adoption” https://old.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/aup68s/lightning_network_bankwallet_is_kind_of/

5 Things I Learned Getting Rekt on Lightning Network https://old.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/atx8jq/psa_important_video_to_watch_if_you_use_lightning/

Listen to this great talk on the problems and complexities of using HTLC’s on the Lightning Network, and possible alternatives. https://old.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/atmlnp/listen_to_this_great_talk_on_the_problems_and/

The current state of Bitcoin companies & dealing with Lightning Network Highlights: Hard to implement, takes a ton of man hours, with no return on investment. LN adds zero utility. The only reason some companies support it is for marketing reasons. https://old.reddit.com/r/lightningnetwork/comments/asuoyy/the_current_state_of_bitcoin_companies_dealing/

Current requirements to run BTC/LN: 2 hard drives + zfs mirrors, need to run a BTC full node, LN full node + satellite, Watchtower and use a VPN service. And BTC fees are expensive, slow, unreliable. https://old.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/aspkj2/current_requirements_to_run_btcln_2_hard_drives/

18 Months Away? Latest Lightning Network Study Calls System a ‘Small Central Clique’ https://news.bitcoin.com/18-months-away-latest-lightning-network-study-calls-system-a-small-central-clique/

Lightning Network DDoS Sends 20% of Nodes Down https://www.trustnodes.com/2018/03/21/lightning-network-ddos-sends-20-nodes

Watchtowers (third party services) are introduced as a way to monitor your funds when you can’t be online 24/7 so they aren’t stolen https://medium.com/@akumaigorodski/watchtower-support-is-coming-to-bitcoin-lightning-wallet-8f969ac206b2

Study finds that the probability of routing $200 on LN between any two nodes is 1% https://diar.co/volume-2-issue-25/

If you spend time checking, there are always new security vulnerabilities on Lightning Network.

(Recently) Source: https://protos.com/bitcoin-lightning-tipping-telegram-bot-hacked-cryptocurrency/

(Recently) Source: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/solving-jamming-attacks-lightning-network

That being said, Bitcoin has a first mover advantage in the space of digital currency, and a robust network giving it a stronghold in the field of digital currency, but it does not represent the global phenomenon that will bring global reserves of wealth from fiat to tokens.

It seems in its current state, the real question for the vision of a more equitable future, where control is not so centralized, is if there is going to be compelling enough reasons to bring the masses to exit Instagram, Tiktok, and the centralized web in general. The companies working on that may very well be working on the ultimate quest for humanities future entirely.

At the end of the day the vision Bitcoin represents is truly a power struggle at its core, between centralized institutions who seek to contain their power and the egalitarian vision of a world that is owned and governed by true democracy.

The masses must be compelled to vote with their dollars, and the myth of Bitcoin alone has been tried on the entire globe. Another resurgence for the idea of bitcoin, would see more fiat come in sure, but that alone would not complete the vision that bitcoin stands for of a world with a decentralized reserve currency.

For vast amounts of global wealth to now enter into the crypto markets, new narratives must emerge to win the war over corruption. Great positive feedback loops must be concocted that enter the global consciousness to continue the story of decentralization of power.

What narratives are most compelling as a means of accomplishing this goal?

While these narratives have the potential to kickstart a new global reserve currency, they also provide immense value to mankind outside of this lofty goal.

1. Religion / Philosophy

-With the internet bringing the “death of god” as told by Friedrich Nietzsche, there is an opening for a new emergent global philosophy/religion built for the modern era that unifies the internet around a belief system. Some have called this era we are in, the era of internet enlightenment.

2. Social Platforms Become Deeply Integrated With Web3 / A new social platform emerges that uses crypto.

-Social media is where the internet networks truly coalesce. A built in wallet on these platforms could give cryptocurrency that edge in the mainstream narrative. This company is growing solely as a web2 company on the frontend for users, but is preparing to add the web3 component as the main way to transact and transfer.

3. Decentralization Movements (Social Media or Political)

-(Social Media) It is mostly well established culturally that centralized tech companies are rotten and evil. Everyone wants these platforms to decentralize and focus on empowerment of people rather than extraction, but so far no compelling movement has even been tried.

-(Political) Decentralizing government positions via voting a person into power who agrees to follow the voting from a blockchain based voting application. Thereby allowing liquid democracy to tackle its first domino in the effect of decentralizing government power back to people.