The 3 types of Bitcoiners
I consider myself to be a huge Bitcoiner. I dropped out of business school to join Coinbase 3 years ago and have been one of the most passionate advocates of Bitcoin since. After years writing lots on the topic (see "What is Good Money") and educating companies, banks, and regulators about it, I'm more optimistic about the future of Bitcoin than ever before.
I'm also excited about many other crypto projects. Ethereum, Steem, and Filecoin are a few of the most promising and I don't view them as competitive to Bitcoin. I believe in a world where BTC is the store of value and "safe haven" digital asset, and other crypto tokens are used for various applications. This seems to be a contrarian view amongst Bitcoiners, but I believe it's the most pragmatic view. Bitcoin as currently constructed has limitations for applications beyond p2p cash. That's not at all a bad thing, its just a fact.
As the Bitcoin space has matured, it's become clear that there's 3 main types of Bitcoiners:
Mr. HODL
Mr. HODL is the guy that is holding only Bitcoin no matter what and thinks all altcoins are scams. He's seen Paycoin and countless other altcoin scams in the past and thinks that what's happened in the past is the best predictor of what's going to happen in the future. He's philosophically driven by things like immutability and decentralization and places these above all. Tone Vays and this guy who called me out on Twitter for promoting a scam (referencing Steem) are good examples of Mr. HODL.
The Technology Believer
The technology believer loves Bitcoin because of Satoshi's technological breakthrough and it's ability to bring new products and services to the world. He wants to see the technology progress, and it doesn't really matter to him how it happens. There may need to be philosophical compromises at times, and that is OK as long as the tech marches forward. I'd put myself, along with many of my former colleagues at Coinbase like Fred Ehrsam and Olaf Carson-Wee in this camp.
The Speculator
The speculator owns and champions bitcoin because he believes he's going to get rich from it. Every Bitcoiner has a little bit of this in him, but for the speculator greed is the primary motivating factor and the tech and philosophy are afterthoughts. The speculator will sell if he thinks the price is going down and will buy another crypto token if he sees a good opportunity to speculate. Barry Silbert is a good example of a speculator.
What type of Bitcoiner are you?
For me mostly number two I guess, although I am a speculator too, but a long term speculator. I believe Bitcoin has great potential, therefore I believe its price will rise, but based on the technology behind it, and how that will impact the world. Number one doesn't apply as I do believe other crypto's (not all, necessarily) also have potential.
I would bet that someones likelihood of being active on Steem is directly proportional to how much of a #2 they are :)
I'm definitely #2 on this list!
Good stuff!
PS - I like your Mr. Hodl example hehe
I have a knack for trading so I am a number 3, but I am a number 4 in that I leave a percentage (relative to how much confidence I have in a particular coin at the time)
At the moment I hold 55% ETH (I believe in the dev's) 40% in BTC (I have no next to no faith in dev's but faith in china and india once bubbles start to pop) and
5 % in steemit because I am going againt my fathers advice (if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is)
a lot of people use bitcoin to transfer wealth across borders cheaper and quicker than banks, what category would they fit in?
Personal the only future uses I see for bitcoin is 'Speculator' where bitcoins is a store of wealth, massive market. And money transfer, also massive market.
There's a whole other category of people that are using BTC to solve practical problems (store of value, value transfer, purchasing gray market goods and services, etc). I don't consider them to be "Bitcoiners." A Bitcoiner = passionate bitcoin believer.
Please fix your twitter url :) https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@ntomaino/www.twitter.com/ntmoney
thanks for catching that. fixed.
I'm #2 type, just for this reason I'm on Steemit now!
welcome! seems like more and more #2's are coming here ( @charlieshrem and @rogervew in the past few days)