A Tale of Chaos vs Order: The ideological war between Bitcoin and Ethereum doesn’t need to happen
We are witnessing an ideological opposition as old as the world itself and we cannot allow ourselves to be consumed by crypto-tribalism.
For the sake of transparency, I will say before we start that I’ve considered myself a Bitcoin Maximalist for a long time now, and I believe that nothing comes close to Bitcoin in terms of overall potential, efficiency/reliability, decentralization. However, the Gamestop/Robinhood debacle reinforced my conviction that we’re going to need a decentralized infrastructure for the finance of tomorrow. So, despite Bitcoin constituting the vast majority of my portfolio, I’m supportive of a few DeFi projects capable of generating meaningful cash-flow for token holders. Now that you know where I stand, let’s begin.
Like many in this community, my journey in crypto has been full of surprises, pleasant ones, and not-so-pleasant ones. However, one thing that I still cannot wrap my head around is the growing conflicts between crypto communities. This natural tendency towards tribalism is not only harmful to the long-term growth of the industry but is absolutely contrary to the values we’re meant to promote. In this essay, I try to put forward a useful framework to approach the fundamental differences between Bitcoiners and Ethereans and I propose a philosophy to adopt moving forward. Enjoy!
I/ Chaos vs Order:
Understanding the philosophical differences between Chaos & Order.
Before we start and to avoid any confusion later, let’s quickly recap what constitutes Chaos and Order according to Jordan Peterson and how the world manifests itself through these mythological concepts :
The world is made out of Chaos and Order, we all have a primal understanding of both. Chaos can usually represent Femininity, it’s the spirit of renewal, new things emerge out of chaos. It’s the thing from which order rises, and because the environment around you always changes, it’s also the thing that challenges the structure in place. Chaos is nature in some sense (“Mother Nature”), both the creative elements of nature and the destructive elements of nature. Chaos can be represented as the unknown, it’s potential, novelty, and novelty excites, it’s the reality of what could be. But Chaos can swallow you, especially when you don’t pay attention, it is ready to manifest itself, the unexpected.
Order, on the other hand, is structure. You can understand Order as the state when what you are doing is producing exactly what you want to have happened, the realm of the predictable. Order is comfort, it’s the stabilization of a structure that already exists. Just like the duality of Nature, Order has two forms that we’ve all encountered before in movies for example the “Tyrant” and the “Wise King”. Order at its extreme is always tyrannical, it represents willful blindness, refusal to engage with reality, dishonesty. Too much Order, Chaos will emerge, and vice-versa. The Wise King, however, represents the patriarch, the promise of a brighter future. The Wise King is not afraid of interacting with Chaos, he always pays attention, eyes wide-open.
2. How are these two primal concepts manifesting themselves in crypto?
If we were to extrapolate these two concepts to the crypto landscape today we could easily determine a clearly paradigmatic opposition between “Classical Bitcoiners” and (Self-proclaimed) “Ethereum-Degens”.
While Bitcoin was the OG bringer of Chaos*, the community has matured enough that Bitcoin largely represents today a form of Order characterized by ideas that give it a clearly defined structure like low-time preference, ossification of the protocol, HODL, self-sovereignty, and some form of pride in the purity of Bitcoin. Bitcoin doesn’t change, or rather, changes only very slowly and purposefully. Verifying a block is absolute truth, complete order. I really like the idea of “immaculate conception” mentioned by Nic Carter when thinking about Bitcoin’s distribution. I think this idea goes further and perfectly encompasses the characterization of Bitcoin as something somewhat spiritual, something so powerful that it needs to be cherished and protected. Protection needs Order, maybe that’s why deep down we love the idea of Citadels so much…
I would argue that the identity of Bitcoin and bitcoiners was permanently defined after the 2017** “Block Wars”. The threat was real and I believe everyone is now aware of the consequences of big-block policies, however, a collective memory has formed surrounding this event in particular (Bitcoin went through other crises) and as result lead to the emergence of an entire “generation” of wary bitcoiners. One would be foolish to forget that the eventual victory was made possible by the resilience of the community, dare I say resistance. But resistance is no longer necessary when you’ve won, so what do you do? You champion the “Duty of Memory”. This would explain the belligerent nature of many in the years that followed, scarred forever by the vivid memory that the future they worked so hard to build could have been taken away.
If so many Bitcoiners are quick to dismiss Ethereans, one has to remember that many of them have chosen, time and time again, to side with “adversarial” projects to Bitcoin, using their influence to undermine the long-term success of the protocol. Respect/Trust has to be earned!
The present debate around Taproot and how to activate it by forcing the UASF onto miners is a testament to this collective scar (My take on it here). Bitcoiners had been betrayed, they had taken the journey down into chaos and were now reborn.
This in turn justified some form of “Maximalism” by being very suspicious of new ideas, protecting the castle from potentially dangerous outsiders. The truth is, at the time, we absolutely needed some hardcore form of toxic maximalism (“memeing” the opposition to death) if we ever wanted to impose the will of the users on a cartel of miners. What about today? You cannot keep the snake away from the castle forever. Evolve or die, right? At least that’s what we like to tweet in ALL CAPS at central bankers. Order is necessary for Bitcoin to survive what’s coming, however, an entire part of our community felt excluded from this new identity paradigm, they are the explorers, the adventurers, willing to set foot into chaos and bring back something valuable to civilization.
By all means, Ethereans perfectly fit this description, from Vitalik himself to our fellow Yield-Farmers, DeFi Degens and VC Chads. They are spearheading progress in the industry, they move fast, they’re not afraid of breaking things (including their portfolio) and they have an insatiable thirst for disruption: They symbolize Chaos.
Again, I’m not using Chaos as a pejorative term, but as a way to define the realm in which Ethereans (and entrepreneurs) generally thrive in. Ethereum is generally viewed today as “the place where exciting stuff happens”. The “Ethereum-Degens” community has derived incredible strength from new verticals in the crypto space, welcoming builders, developers, traders, and even their own billionaire representative.
By Ethereans I’m referencing the broader crypto community as ETH is only one project. I would include the “crypto” industry, altcoins, Competing L1s, etc... Their way of doing things is pretty much the same wherever you build on ETH, Solana, or Polkadot. To newcomers, they represent what’s new, what has potential.
Ethereans like to operate on the Edge of Chaos, and the closer you can get from the edge is during the euphoria of bull markets. The bull market of 2017 was the defining year for Ethereum, it forever opened up a new realm that was previously thought to be explored exhaustively and inaccessible to the general public. With that came the Good and the Bad. And to be fair, most of it was bad. The ideas were good but the implementation was terrible and that’s ok. Did not we stop building planes because they crashed on their first few test flights? Sometimes Ethereans get too close and fall of the cliff; sometimes they fly off the same cliff in a Gulfstream G650ER.
It took two years in the shadows for the Ethereum community to come back in full force, this time with a much more interesting value proposition. DeFi is a fascinating space and contrary to most projects in 2017, there is a clear and massive demand for DeFi products. One could even argue that after the whole Robinhood debacle earlier this year, there’s an absolute NEED for decentralized platforms capable of competing with traditional financial infrastructure. To get here, the emergence of a particular breed of people was necessary, builders, founders, developers, and analysts that were not afraid to think outside the box. Like artists, these people are willing to explore the unknown, face the dragon, and come back to civilization with something New.
Now, siding with Chaos is, of course, not for everyone and you must be willing to face the consequences: rug-pulls, exploits, extreme criticism, the list goes on. Indeed, one must admit that most of the projects built on “blockchains” today are total bullshit, do not require their own token, or don’t even have a working product. However, if you are comfortable with this reality, if you are really “in it for the technology”, then you will probably find this challenging environment quite fitting for you. Indeed, when you can take some perspective on all these tokens and make the effort to DYOR, then you’ll be able to discover a whole new space driven by innovation and fascinating people.
Nonetheless, what's incredible is the fact that an entire community is being built on this particular philosophy of trial and error, echoing some older communities before them that all had the internet in common. They call themselves Degens, Apes, Farmers… and I, for one, fucking love them. I was so inspired by what people like Redphonecrypto and Psykeeper symbolize, some form of fight club/Cyberpunk meets Finance type of vibe that old bitcoiners use to have. For this reason, I’m very bullish on what they are trying to achieve, but most importantly, the manner in which they are achieving it. Discord servers, Polls, community governance, fair distribution, Twitter threads…Something beautiful is happening!
However, I fear that this much chaos will lead to tragedy. I foresee that the Ethereum community could go through the same kind of internal conflict that lead Bitcoin to split in 2017. The opposition to EIP-1559 by some miners might evolve into something bigger especially as an increasing amount of pressure is put on ETH to compete with other more centralized chains like the Binance Smart Chain. (Pancake Swap might very well symbolize a turning point for ETH dominance in DeFi)
Something, I believe, that should be said about Ethereans is that they do not have the same goal as Bitcoiners, and the ones that claim they do are lying to you, or to themselves. DeFi is about inventing new business models and making them accessible to the masses. I would consider DeFi more in the corporate/finance space. Most of the talk is about valuations, cash flows, governance. This is very different from what Bitcoin is about. As a result, it will obviously attract a different crowd, not a better one, but just a different one. Some Ethereans have decided to only focus on their space, and it’s their right. I’m into both, but for very different reasons. I love DeFi because I love Finance and I want to make money, nothing wrong with that. Bitcoin is way more political in nature. In order to understand both communities, it is useful to remain open-minded.
Similar to how the traditional opposition between Chaos and Order is being played out today in politics, higher education, and economics, both are needed if the crypto philosophy is to succeed and spread.
Many people criticize Maximalism as a form of extremism and close-minded mentality, but if the short history of CryptoTwitter teaches us anything, it’s that for a community of individuals to be inspired to stand up and fight against Evil (s/o CSW), they have to be united by simple values. When the basic values of Bitcoin were under attack, we needed maximalists to step up and lead the charge against an organized enemy. If you think we can take on central banks and centralized entities like governments and corporate conglomerates without some degree of “Toxicity” you are delusional.
However, Maximalism, in the form of extreme Order, has to remain an emergency measure. Just like the nuclear bomb, unleashing Udi Wertheimer on your fellow “.eth twitter influencer” must be last resort. Chaos on the other hand, by expanding the realm of the Known, is absolutely necessary if we want to move forward as a community and keep up with technological progress and innovation.
Chaos and Order ; both are needed ; not always at the same time…
II/ The uniting philosophy moving forward: The Age of Cathedrals
1.Do not waste the opportunity to BUIDL
When I see some of the people I consider role models tearing themselves apart on some Twitter FUD, I’m disgusted that we’ve reached this level of comfort where we allow ourselves to forget what we're fighting for, and against... Now don’t get me wrong, competition is always good, and dunking on a cringe take with some memes is a fundamental part of what makes CT so good and constantly exciting. However, lately, I’ve been reading a lot more salty/vindictive tweets from some reasonably important accounts. Why is that?
We have such an incredible opportunity here that much more attention should be paid to people who Build rather than people who Tweet. We only have one chance to rebuild different, rebuild more honestly, more accessible, and overall build something that will last for generations to come. I don’t think anyone did a better job of laying down the importance of building with a low-time preference in mind than Nic Carter. His article “Bitcoin at 12" is an absolute masterpiece and by far my favorite piece of his, it perfectly grasps a fundamental concept that our modern society forgot :
Virtually anything worth building takes time to build. Enduring institutions don’t come easy.
We’ve just started laying down the foundation of a new financial system, and in the grand scheme of things so little has actually been achieved. As cryptocurrencies have triggered a generational paradigm shift, it will be up to our sons and daughters to finish what we’ve started. Bitcoin is our Cathedral, a Cathedral for Freedom, Transparency, and Truth. What it symbolizes deserves to be protected and preserved. The only way we’ll be successful at this task is if we actually focus on building. BUILD THE CATHEDRALS ***
Bitcoiners who earnestly believe in a better monetary world, and aren’t afraid to bring that reality to bear, are the equivalent of masons and laborers, working on a monetary cathedral which they may never see come to fruition.
I would extend this to the whole crypto ecosystem and insist that if we fail to cooperate and work together, we would do well to remember who the real enemy is and what awaits us at the end of the road :
2. Remember to choose Freedom
At the end of the day, we’re all here because we believe in the same ideal, Freedom. Free markets, Free Speech, and Liberty above all things. Instead of giving into divisive narratives, we should rather advocate for what we preach. You are a Bitcoin maxi and you believe that all Ethereum Tokens will fail? Good for you, let the market play it out, take some distance and focus on something else of greater importance. After all, there’s nothing better than pain to teach you a valuable lesson. Do you believe that users will prefer to choose accessibility over decentralization? Let’s wait a couple of years. If you truly believe in the invisible hand of the market then what's the point of constantly complaining on Twitter?
Some people are actively trying to impose narratives on newcomers, and this is ridiculous. Let people decide, as sovereign individuals what they choose to believe in. The way we have structured our speech on CT is extremely powerful. This particular speech is made up of terms that give us a defined identity. We own these terms to differentiate ourselves from the traditional financial system, not to weaponize them against each other. Nobody should appropriate CT lingo for the community they belong to. I’ll give you an example :
“yes there’s currently $1T locked in a DeFi smart-contract, it’s called Bitcoin”
If this triggers you, then ask yourself if instead of excluding people, we should not rather welcome them with open arms and grow stronger? (answer: we should)
With free speech, we have the ability to have these debates and no one should “shut down” unpopular ideas. The only way to reconcile the fundamental opposition between Order and chaos is speech.
I often see tweets about ETH flipping BTC and I often think that these people are complete clowns. The truth is, who cares? It is not BTC nor ETH’s goal to be first. The goal is DECENTRALIZATION and CENSORSHIP-RESISTANCE. I would rather have Bitcoin be successful and top 400 on CMC than top 1 and having failed on its original promises. The same goes for ETH and so-called “ETH-Killers”. The measure of Decentralization is NOT reflected in a market cap ranking (as if it was not already obvious..).
The truth is that Bitcoin found its “killer app” long ago, it’s the Apex Predator of money/SoV. But most importantly, it is the most secure and decentralized “Settlement Layer” that has ever existed on the internet. Bitcoiners understand the tradeoffs they had to make in order to maximize the chances of Bitcoin surviving against centralized entities. I feel like Etherans and crypto projects, in general, are still trying to find the thing at which they will excel, they are in the experimentation stage. It comes down to the Blockchain Trilemma. If Bitcoin has superior value, superior censorship resistance, and better settlement assurances, what is there to stop Bitcoin**** from also taking over crypto applications when L2s such as the Lightning Network become viable for mass-scale use? (LN is probably close). The RGB concept further shows that the future of Layer 1s is to be kept as simple as possible (i.e for settlement purposes only), and that computation should happen on L2s and L3s.
However, this does not warrant a form of moral high ground from maximalists as what is being built today on ETH, might become the base of a new financial system that settles on BTC tomorrow. Bitcoiners should pay attention because much of DeFi could end up on BTC. The same goes for people discarding Bitcoin as obsolete (PoW is bad, no innovation on BTC, no scalability…), they should understand why things are the way they are rather than immediately assuming you can do better. A wise man once said, “Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world”.
My intent in writing this article was not to advocate for some kind of spineless middle-ground. Gustave Flaubert once said : “J’ai en haine tout despotisme. Je suis un libéral enragé.”
(I hate all forms of despotism, I’m an enraged liberal*****)
Just like him, I implore my fellow Bitcoiners and Ethereans to be ENRAGED DECENTRALIZATION MAXIMALISTS. Chaos and Order are a fundamental dynamic of this world and the place where we evolve the most is right on the edge of the two. Instead of arguing about why the approach of the other side is wrong, let’s preach together an inspiring and unifying gospel to people that will discover crypto during this bull super-cycle. If you’ve made it this far, my DM’s are open to feedback.
Never forget, we're winning.
Thank you to Edan Yago and allen farrington for keeping me in check. Thank you to Gigi redphonecrypto and the many others who helped me review this essay.
*Everything is relative and if we take Bitcoin in the broader macro-economic context, it still represent a chaotic force order of magnitude stronger that the BTC/ETH difference. We should not forget that.
**The conflict was in fact much older : https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/long-road-segwit-how-bitcoins-biggest-protocol-upgrade-became-reality
*** I would hate myself if I didn’t also say this: Build the fucking Citadels!
****Sovryn is also an interesting project rn.
**** Liberal in the french original concept of Libertarian.
