I agree on uniting and calling out liars, but such characters as Craig Wright don't even deserve the attention. Nobody in his right mind would believe this lune. esp after hearing his arguments. He lied to the judge, that's when he should really get punished for his claims
@owlcatz Umm Cuz you don't feed the trolls?
This is an important point. For years, I ignored Craig Wright! I saw him not only as a despicable scammer, but also as a clown and a dumb troll who should be starved of the attention he so craves. Anyway, I had better things to do.
Then, I saw this post by Greg Maxwell, which I will hereby quote fully (with my addition of boldface and bracketed material) because it is so important:
On one hand I agree that threads related to him [Craig Wright] tend heavily to off-topic.
On the other hand, a big part of the reason that he's caused so much disruption (and he truly has)-- is because so many bitcoiners took one look at him, saw how transparently fake he was, and decided it was best to ignore him. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. And that is what has happened here--
It's easy for him to spin the people who do speak out against his fraud as somehow being involved with some kind of personal play against him because as a community we haven't stood united against his fraud. Instead, far too many have just responded like "Good thing I'm not ignorant enough to fall for that, better stay away so I don't get targeted with drama too."
In the future we're going to see more crap like him threatening any business that accepts Bitcoin with patent litigation, to which the common response will be "damn, this bitcoin stuff isn't worth the trouble" from most parties who's business isn't primarily about Bitcoin. How could you expect otherwise when your response to wright is "damn, this wright stuff isn't worth the trouble"?
Because his lies are so prolific and layered in every one of these threads there are some newer bitcoiners that end up being corrected and put on a more sensible path. It isn't always a question of people believing him outright, often its falling for one of his lesser lies like the claim that he's an "og bitcoin investor" or that kleiman had something to do with Bitcoin's creation.
The Wright threads also make it really easy to identify many idiots and shills. I think we're all made better off by having access to such a quick classifier of the character of our fellow posters.
If someone broke into your house and was stealing stuff-- you wouldn't just say 'that thief doesn't deserve our attention' and ignore them. We shouldn't hesitate to defend Bitcoin and the community surrounding it.
People do, for the most part, ignore people that caused trouble in the past but aren't anymore. You hear about wright because his scams are ongoing and still growing.
Now-- if you want to argue that various threads aren't very effective and that the community could do better? I couldn't agree more.
For opening my eyes to how my own inaction was passively permitting attacks on Bitcoin, I gave +20 for that post (whereas I need to earn thatI am not a merit source). Then, I took the advice that the community could do better: A community is made of people, I am a personso I decided to lead by example, starting with two topics showing the types of discussion that I hope others will join me in carrying forward, far, and wide into many languages and many venues of discussion:
- Bitcoin: The Social Phenomenon, a positive essay to explain why my motto is, There is only one Bitcoin, and invite community discussion thereupon. This was an essay that I had in mind for a long time, and just never took the time to write. I list it first, although it was actually posted after Anastasia, because I think it is important to keep this principle: Always say what you are, before you say what you are against. A positive message for the good must then be protected by a negative message against the bad; whereas a negative message is nothing, in itself. (Russian translation by taikuri13; more languages coming soon!)
- Project Anastasia, to label Craig Wright properly with a term that exactly describes his fraud, and immediately tells the average person exactly what he is doing: Identity theft! (Anastasia in Russian; more languages coming soon!)
In the long term, these two will only be the beginning of a series of pro-Bitcoin essays that engage the community in a renewed focus on what makes Bitcoin great, whilst also striking down the lies and scams of those who attack Bitcoin (and thus, attack your money).
I always work slowly, but I am a patient man; and I have started my Bitcoin advocacy with the intent of growing it to have a long-term large effect, not of making a drama splash and then getting bored. Bitcoin is worth love, it is worth working forand it is worth fighting for.