Plan B's Giacomo Zucco has stated that Bitcoin's early success is impossible to recreate today. This comes after the failed BIP-110 soft fork, which aimed to restrict non-financial data storage on Bitcoin. The fork, supported by only 2.53% of mined blocks, led to a brief chain split before being abandoned. Zucco views this as an 'educational event' that highlights the challenges of launching a cryptocurrency fairly in today's environment.
BIP-110 Failure
According to Zucco, even honest attempts to launch a cryptocurrency are hindered by obstacles that Bitcoin avoided in its early days. He cites examples of actors seeking early access to specialized mining hardware, despite developers' efforts to ensure equal token distribution.
Centralization Concerns
Zucco also points to the attempted survival of the BIP-110 chain, where developer Luke Dashjr tried to randomly select a new proof-of-work algorithm. However, participants mined additional test blocks to manipulate the outcome, leading to a highly centralized process.
Governance and Urgency
Zucco believes that discussions around spam and governance are valid, but argues that the urgency surrounding BIP-110 was misplaced. He criticizes the argument that the proposal was necessary to prevent illegal content from being encoded on the blockchain, stating that it created a false sense of urgency.
Aftermath
Following the fork's failure, Dashjr lost his position as a BIP editor due to a conflict of interest. Zucco, who opposed the fork, deemed this decision 'out of place' and a form of 'retribution' that fuels centralization accusations.
