Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] Bitcoin Core and hard forks

From: Mike Hearn <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2015 23:43:20 +0200

Hi Pieter,

I think a core area of disagreement is this:

> Bitcoin Core is not running the Bitcoin economy, and its developers have
> no authority to set its rules.
>
In fact Bitcoin Core is running the Bitcoin economy, and its developers do
have the authority to set its rules. This is enforced by the reality of
~100% market share and limited github commit access.

You may not like this situation, but it is what it is. By refusing to make
a release with different rules, people who disagree are faced with only two
options:

1. Swallow it even if they hate it
2. Fork the project and fork the block chain with it (XT)

There are no alternatives. People who object to (2) are inherently
suggesting (1) is the only acceptable path, which not surprisingly, makes a
lot of people very angry.