There is a serious lack of trust and credibility in the bitcoin community and it needs to be rectified
Bitmain, blockstream, segwit, bitcoin unlimited, big blocks, miners, core developers, other developers, uasf, uahf, r/btc, r/bitcoin, hard fork, classic, BTC1, jihan, lukejr, Garzik, Wright, BIP148, deliberate spammers...
FUCK!
I can't trust any discussion about anything above because there's literally nobody who is seen as an unbiased authority / trusted source.
It is sorely needed in the bitcoin world, because right now the community / discussions are a mess and trust everywhere is at all time lows.
We need trusted sources, we need unbiased sources, we need reports / journalists / independent advice! Hell, an independent investigation conducted by some third party organisation or group would go a long way.
The issues affecting bitcoin are extremely complicated, how are we supposed to have a user consensus or decentralised organisation when the vast majority of community members (myself included) don't understand what's being discussed?
People say "just read up and educated yourself" but the problem is that no matter what I read, it's contradicted elsewhere by someone else. I'm sure I'm not the only person who's run into this difficulty, and I think many people share my frustration. The question is, what do we do about it?
- How would a analyst/adviser/reporter minimise bias, and how is this proven to others?
- How is credibility gained and maintained in the bitcoin world?
- How can users trust that a source is truthful and unbiased?
I know I don't have the answer, but this is a very, very big problem and it's something that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. The community cannot remain fractured and untrusting. We will not be able to achieve progress and consensus. This seems one of the biggest issues facing bitcoin, the technical side comes second because to even implement change you need community support.
Thoughts?
The idea of bitcoin to die soon is far from happening, though this not impossible. Many are now aware about Bitcoin, and most of them are already engaging the market. Normally, this industry is running because of the money rotating around it. More money means many are investing this can cause more opportunity for bitcoin. So, it is impossible as of now that bitcoin to perished.
Write good
Bitcoin unfortunately turned into politics.
What this means is that instead of finding an independent actor (which doesn't exist, as you found out), you need to find out what group or project makes your usecases stand out. What group represents you.
Unfortunately a lot of people have chosen Bitcoin Core, for reasons I don't really understand. I mean, why would you trust the word of a company that gets funding from the banks and investment firms, the exact ones that have caused so many people to lose everything. Who have managed for decades to keep the rich, well rich.
My advice, and naturally I'm biased too as the maintainer of Bitcoin Classic, is that you look at the story-line a person or group gives you and check how much it fits your world view. And make sure you check how consistent they are. To avoid them just playing on the audience why contradicting earlier promises on a regular basis (something Greg does all the time).