I went to town on the Blockstream conflict of interest because of the implications in principle of having a for-profit have any kind of influence on the code. But only because I thought any kind of external influence was bad. Now I realize that not only will there always be external influence, that it's necessary to maintain the code. I have to admit, appeals to change the protocol based on popularity sort of concern me. Shouldn't consensus be based on technical merit?


That's what I used to think.