Amir Taaki (2014) -- Gavin is naive.

Gavin Andresen is a small dude who has suddenly found himself thrust into the centre of a big picture, with many players vying for his attention. He is also naive. And bankers, law enforcement types, politicians and lawyers come to him smiling with good manners and sweet words.He sees himself as some closeted libertarian ninja silently advancing the Bitcoin agenda while working with regulators to better sway their opinion by offering up his assistance, demonstrating good intent. All without realizing he is educating the sharks.He says that we need to get the masses on board, because then we will be protected, and that it's OK to compromise so that we win these gains. It's a typical herd mentality of frightened sheep flocking together waiting to be slaughtered. What Bitcoin needs are strong individuals willing to stand for their rights and take initiative.Then there are the "fringe elements" of Bitcoin who call him out, and they are a threat to this strategy, a threat to the united front of the Foundation. And so they make attempts to marginalize, to push-out people who don't dress, think and speak like them.Bitcoin is bigger than you, me or anyone else here. Bitcoin is not a payments system, it is a transactional network with way more potential for how humans organize, govern and live. We haven't even begun to explore the true possibilities of this new technology of the blockchain.Bitcoin is a shitty payments system. It is not meant for buying coffee at Starbucks. It is an economical tool to enable new forms of trade to thrive which extends further into the areas of resource management, decentralized law, and digital governance. We can use this to create the next generation of economic activity between humans, and organize on a local level much larger than ever before possible. We can find new ways to disempower banks, politicians, lawyers, police, judges and institutions.Note the title of the Bitcoin 2013 conference which calls Bitcoin a "payments innovation". This is their way of slanting Bitcoin so it's not a challenging new currency, but a safe addition to help banks streamline. A way to paper over the cracks in our current financial system.These people are dangerous because of the influence they wield over Bitcoin that can destroy it as a free and open system. Recently Gavin made a post calling to raise the blocksize limit which is connected to this vision of Bitcoin as a system for payments. There is an agenda behind that kind of talk because raising the blocksize limit morphs Bitcoin as a better payment's system but centralizes more power with miners - which is already at dangerous levels in Bitcoin. We can either have a decentralized, free and uncensored Bitcoin, or a centralized Bitcoin good for payments (same as the banks).-- Amir Taaki 2014-07-31http://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoins-political-neutrality-is-a-myth-amir-taaki-interview via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1SKkW6V