OK... Admittedly occassionally guilty.  I DO think that XT was an idiotic and uncontrolled mess, and I do think that the only group that would have stood to gain the most off of it were the huge banks.  All this talk of stuffing the blocks with Ledger info etc...  But I am NOT necessarily against that.... I am just against extremes.  Mike represented the extreme to me.  Blockstream/Core represents the opposite extreme.   Interestingly, I see BOTH of those paths as leading to Centralization and Loss of Privacy.  Hearns path I saw giving it to the existing Fiat (even if unintentionally).  Blockstream/Core I see giving it to a "New Breed of Fiat" - the tech giants.  I can see Google, Apple, Facebook and handful of other companies running everything through App based Private Chains - and slowly but surely squeezing out the smaller chains.

I like Classic because it allows a slow, methodical growth curve.  I just feel like allowing everyone to fight it out equally and fairly will result in a better long term system of checks and balances.  Do I still think Fiat Banks or Fiat Fintech will abuse.  Yes.  It will always be there.

But my biggest beef is that Mike is associated with Classic at all by name/reputation in this current scenario.   I think he is a genius, blah blah blah, but I DO think he is a bit biased towards the wishes of his current paycheck providers, just like Blockstream/Core is with their paymasters/funders.

And yes, I think Mike went a bit unnecessarily whiny at the end, and my guess is that once he's cooled off he may (at least privately) be embarrassed by his behavior.  I actually WISH he'd just quietly backed Classic and been done with it.

But honestly he is irrelevant to Bitcoin at present in my opinion.  Deesn't mean he (or members of Blockstream/Core) can't/won't be enormous contributors down the road..... but damnit we need to get this Fork underway and done.