In 2021, Bitcoin and Ethereum accelerated further into the mainstream as the leading two blockchains on the planet, respectively. Both networks have deeply dedicated communities and developers working to protect and evolve the peer-to-peer technological innovations.
The practice of calling anything other than Bitcoin a scam is sometimes labeled “toxic maximalism.” Online bitcoiners who defend the network against detractors and attack “imitators” are what MicroStrategy’s former CEO Michael Saylor called a “cybernetic immune system.” Historically, maximalism isn’t rare in tech – though it often results in embarrassment for any outspoken critics of, say, cars, planes, phones and the internet.
For Ethereum: In 2016, shortly after The DAO launched and raised $150 million worth of ether through a token sale, this first decentralized autonomous organization was hacked due to vulnerabilities in its code base. The Ethereum blockchain was eventually hard forked to restore the stolen funds. Not all parties agreed with this decision, resulting in the network splitting into two distinct blockchains, Ethereum and Ethereum Classic.
Likewise, Satoshi Nakamoto actually disappeared. This left Bitcoin without a specific human to direct the network or target to take it down – a feature, not a bug. However, Bitcoin Core is still a loose organization, with owners of a Github account and reportedly a multisig wallet used for funding developer travel and accommodations at meetups. This wallet is intentionally kept on a need-to-know basis.
Decentralization applies to both computing power and governance, and both are essential in determining the holistic level of decentralization.