Is there a better Bitcoin?

Two days ago, a certain truther, so banned/cancelled that I’m uncertain about mentioning his name (let’s find out, shall we!), Mike Adams AKA the Health Ranger, released a fascinating video titled “Reassessing Bitcoin as Protection Against Collapsing Fiat Banks” in it, he retracts some of his previous criticisms of Bitcoin and acknowledges its value. Specifically, he notes its wide acceptance and universal status among cryptocurrencies, making it useful to own, if only to serve as an onramp to “better blockchains”. When speaking of these superior blockchains, he refers to Epic Cash (whitepaper is here), which claims to be a “decentralized privacy-enhanced cryptocurrency developed by a growing volunteer community”.

Instead of focusing on Epic Cash in this post (I’m still researching and need to learn more), I will summarize the pros and cons highlighted by Mike as a starting point for further discussions on each aspect. Don’t worry, we’ll eventually explore Epic Cash and answer the question in the headline.

The Pro’s

I am entirely in agreement with Mike’s stated goal for his renewed deep investigation into crypto, which is to “completely leave the fiat system”. It’s a goal I share and one that is somewhat challenging to align with within the Bitcoin community, where the primary focus is on buying and holding, rather than going all-in and never looking back to fiat. From this perspective, his list of Bitcoin’s pros seems reasonable and factual, with perhaps a few caveats:

• Borderless.

• Banks can’t stop transactions.

• Highly transportable.

• IRS can’t find it (unless bought on centralized exchange).

• Widest acceptance for on/off ramp and to spend.

• Bridge to other privacy coins offering true anonymity.

The Cons

This section is where we encounter the real challenges, and these points represent all the things I want to delve into with an open mind. Regardless of what you may or may not think about Mike, these criticisms deserve to be objectively explored to determine their validity, if for no other reason than to test your own understanding of the technology or belief you may hold. In this spirit, here are the main cons Mike pointed out about Bitcoin:

• Bitcoin is NOT truly decentralized.

• Bitcoin is not fungible.

  • Tainted coins due to association or previous use for illegal activity aka Silk Road BTC

  • Ordinals

• Newly mined “clean” Bitcoins “have more value” than existing Bitcoins.

• The Bitcoin blockchain is too big and growing due fundamental scaling issues and of course Ordinals again.

• Bitcoin is not private.

• Bitcoin transactions are slow and expensive and once again Ordinals.

Where do we start?

The significant alarm for me from this podcast was the fungibility issues raised. The idea of using, receiving, or spending Bitcoin, which may have been held or used in connection with a wallet involved in criminal activity, and facing seizure or worse is rather alarming. How real is this? Is there such a thing as “clean” satoshis and how long do they stay “clean”? What about CoinJoin, mixing, Confidential Transactions, or just using a new address for each transaction? Does this matter?

This is where I will begin my exploration. My initial research has already led me to an intriguing post from 2012 on BitcoinTalk titled “Unique serial number for every single satoshi”, which discusses fungibility and proposes the same basic concept as Ordinal Theory! In fact, a user named “rodarmor” posted to this thread on December 21st of 2022:

“So, funny story, in the beginning of 2022, I came up with the exact same scheme discussed in this thread. After I finished the scheme, I realized that it was basically serial numbers for satoshis, typed “satoshi serial numbers” into Google, and found this post. It feels natural extension to bitcoin, so it makes sense that multiple people have come up with it over the years.

I called it “ordinal theory” or “ordinals”, because it uses order in multiple places:”

I wonder if this was the actual first announcement of Ordinal Theory, as opposed to the Twitter post that came in January of 2023? I also discovered that my favorite Bitcoin DEX, BISQ, uses colored coins as part of its DAO with the BSQ token. Are there other uses of colored coins out there that predate the BRC20 meme tokens?

Investigating one question often leads you to unexpected places! More on this in my next post, which will focus exclusively on the topic of fungibility.

Ciao for now, and live decentralized!