Thread by Rusty Russell

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If #Bitcoin confuses you, it's important to remember that we're trying to change *accepted social norms*. That's weird, slow and confusing.

In my Linux days we were dealing with "that's not how you construct software", Bitcoin is "that's not how you construct money". 1/7
For Linux I had read and sympathized with RMS's GNU Free Software vision at University, but it took Linux to actually show me it actually *worked better*. But I was the "weird Linux guy" for a long time, then inside a "weird Linux bubble". 2/7
What happened in the 25 years between "Free Software exists if you can't afford real software" and "all important software is Open Source"? Between the social norm of Digicash as a proprietary patented solution and Bitcoin as anonymous FOSS? 3/7
As far as I can tell, we developers just kept developing the technology. Others took it, made companies or products, sure. But we just, y'know, kept polishing for decades, because it was fun, rewarding and useful. Weird became normal, even mundane. 4/7
So, that's my plan: just keep making things better wherever I can, again. Today, that's lightning and BOLT specs. And others take it, do Great Things, and sometimes they'll know who I am and sometimes they won't. But step by step, their successes normalize it. 5/7
And it only really works if the developer keep incrementally improving things (and there is so much to explore and improve!). We have something here, and it will spread, but it will be gradual because it's unconventional. I expect it to take a generation. 6/7
Of course, then you will never make the next generation understand how radical the now Normal Thing was, now their perceptions have shifted.

I'm just astonished that I get to do this *twice*. I'm really not even that clever, I'm just amazingly lucky. 7/7
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