The biggest threat to the Bitcoin network is “ambitious opportunists” who want to push through protocol changes, according to Michael Saylor, the co-founder of Bitcoin (BTC) treasury company Strategy.
Saylor’s comments sparked a debate online. Bitcoin maximalist Justin Bechler said the comments were directed toward software developers pushing for non-monetary use cases on Bitcoin, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and onchain images in blocks.
“The greatest risk to Bitcoin is quantum,” investor Fred Krueger said, while others like Mert Mumtaz, the CEO of remote procedure call (RPC) node provider Helius, disagreed with Saylor. Mumtaz said:
“Absolute cancer of a mindset. ‘Ambitious people wanting to evolve this technology are our biggest risk.’ Nothing is infallible. certainly not Bitcoin, which has had tons of bugs until now, like all other software — perhaps let’s let those bugs stay instead of patching them.”
Several users, including Mark of Bitcoin, cited the ongoing spam wars and Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 110 (BIP-110), a temporary soft fork aimed at filtering out non-monetary data from the Bitcoin ledger.
Saylor’s post inflamed the debate between Bitcoiners who want to ossify the protocol and software developers advocating for expanded features on Bitcoin, like quantum-resistant wallet addresses and onchain file storage.
Related: Michael Saylor pushes back on criticism of Bitcoin treasury companies
The Bitcoin community continues to debate the quantum threat
Quantum computing continues to be a subject of intense debate among the Bitcoin community. Nic Carter, the founding partner of venture firm Castle Island, has repeatedly warned that the protocol needs to move to post-quantum standards as soon as possible.
However, Adam Back, the CEO of digital asset infrastructure company Blockstream, rebuffed Carter’s claims, calling them “uninformed.”
“Bitcoiners and developers are not in denial about defensively doing the research and development to prepare for future quantum computers. But they are just quietly doing research while you make uninformed noise,” Back said.
Bitcoin market analyst James Check said that quantum computing fears are not affecting Bitcoin’s market price, and he attributed the recent market downturn to long-term Bitcoin holders dumping their coins onto the market.
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