Meh, I was against Andresen before it was cool. Actually, I started many years ago and it was met by a lynch mob of Gavin homosexual fanboys. I still have the rope burns on my neck. You may as well leave Napoleon Bitaparte alone now. He's outed himself time and time again. I don't think anyone is missing who he really is at this point.
There was a time where I used to "trust" (might not be the right word) his opinions. Even back when he suggested 20 MB blocks; this was probably because I misunderstood everything related to the block size debate just as many do today. Over time one could easily see that he can't be trusted as he used to. 20 MB would have definitely harmed the system that we are using right now.
That's not even part of it for me. I've been closely watching the little dictator react since the BIP 16/17 debates and he's been on the edge of reality for years. I've accused him, in posts here multiple times, of being a self serving power hungry manipulator. I haven't seen anything lately that changes my opinion.
So in your view it's more likely that he's ego-driven rather than having been recruited by CIA/other?
Yes, success and power are his only motivations and it shows. If you want to see ego based nerd rage at its finest read this thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=62037.0You mean a distorted sense of "success and power", by climbing up the "authority" ladder set up for him since childhood? Yeah, seems accurate. CIA probably realized they didn't need to recruit him; just perhaps give him some "hints" to make him believe that he's "serving his country" and being a good "patriot".
I doubt the CIA cares much about Bitcoin. The entire Bitcoin market cap wouldn't hide enough money to cover overthrowing even one government or funding one puppet regime. The CIA doesn't care about illegal drugs or illegal guns they buy and use both of them in their overseas operations (read up on Air America). Most likely they wanted to understand Bitcoin to find out if they could use it to launder money. Bitcoin isn't big enough yet to be useful to the CIA. The entire Bitcoin market cap is probably smaller than the CIAs budget for snacks. The agency in charge of fucking up interstate commerce that would worry about small time crimes using Bitcoin would be the FBI.
Well, do you think CIA has a will of its own, and is not directed by a more central compartment such as DNI and various dark budget interests? Coups, weapons, drugs, are just some (difficult to hide) aspects of what the IC do. They wanted to find out if they could use Bitcoin to launder money, yes, that's a given, but their interest is always comprehensive, not limited to just one idea. Even back then before the banksters may have begun to perceive Bitcoin/cryptocurrency/decentralization as a threat, their main interest would probably still have been to control it, by attempting to introduce control vectors that might eventually result in such control.
Sophisticated adults like to believe they put away childish things when they left school but in reality we never really grow out of them. Cliques of people develop at work just like they did in school. It's human nature and can't be helped.
Of course it can! It already is! Sure there are many egos still clashing and feeling good by "being right" (hell, even I still succumb to that at times!), but if you're not noticing the changing energy on our planet you're not paying attention!
