Bitcoin Ossification Debate with Vijay Boyapati and Reardencode SLP583

The bitcoin ‘ossification’ debate continues with a discussion on the key considerations. What makes Bitcoin special? What improvements are necessary to retain sufficient decentralisation, if any? 

Vijay Boyapati and Brandon Black (aka reardencode) rejoin me for a special episode to discuss: 

• What makes Bitcoin special? 

  
  



• Defining ‘ossification’

  
  



• How many users is ‘enough’? 

  
  



• Unknown unknowns

  
  



• Addressing centralising MEV concerns

  
  



• Soft forks and hard forks

  
  



• Economic nodes and who holds the power

  
  



• Where to from here

  
  

Timestamps:

(00:00) - Intro

(01:54) - What makes Bitcoin Special? ft. Vijay

(09:37) - Verifiability & decentralisation of Bitcoin ft. Brandon

(14:31) - When do we stop ‘changing’ bitcoin?

(15:17) - Revisiting the blocksize wars & importance of self sovereignty

(20:45) - Libertarian principles of Bitcoin

(23:48) - ‘Sufficiently decentralised’ Bitcoin

(26:42) - Defining ‘Ossification’ of Bitcoin

(30:56) - Sponsors

(34:11) - Economic interests in upgrading Bitcoin nodes

(43:40) - Bitcoin is a Trojan horse

(47:15) - Can we rule out ‘Unknown unknowns'?

(50:49) - Concerns over centralising MEV

(1:00:17) - Whose chain is it anyway?

(1:05:14) - Resisting soft forks and hard forks

(1:16:49) - Closing Thoughts

Links:

• X: @real_vijay

  
  



• Bullish Case for Bitcoin: Swan.com/bullish

  
  



• X: @reardencode

  
  

Prior episodes:

• Rusty - Great Script Restoration

  
  



• Brandon Black - Are Covenants necessary for Bitcoin

  
  



• TXHASH Steven Roose

  
  



• Matt Corallo and Steve Lee Great Consensus Cleanup

  
  

Sponsors:

• Swan.com (code LIVERA)

  
  



• CoinKite.com (code LIVERA)

  
  



• Mempool.space

  
  

Stephan Livera links:

• Follow me on X: @stephanlivera

  
  



• Subscribe to the podcast

  
  



• Subscribe to Substack