Why Some Bitcoin Core Developers Aren’t That Upset With Bitcoin’s Price Decline

During the developer panel at the Unconfiscatable conference in Las Vegas over the weekend, an audience member asked how the falling bitcoin price has affected development efforts around the peer-to-peer digital cash system. In his response, Mempool Partners founder Johnny Dilley explained that some Bitcoin Core developers are not as upset with the current bear market as some would assume.

A Lower Price Means Less Pressure

“I wouldn’t say they’re happy about [the price decline], but they feel like it takes pressure off them,” said Dilley.

The former Blockstream man added that some of the Bitcoin Core contributors had a large amount of anxiety during the crazy price run in 2017.

“There’s a lot of anxiety that comes from the system ramping up a lot faster than we think it’s ready,” said Dilley.

Dilley added that some developers wish the price was still at $200 because then the requirements on the system would be much lighter. He added that this is something Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto also hinted at in the past in regard to the adoption of Bitcoin by Wikileaks.

“It would have been nice to get this attention in any other context. WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet's nest, and the swarm is headed towards us,” commented Nakamoto at the time.

“Eyeballs are always good when it comes to like sunlight cures all ailments, but it certainly ramps up some of the pressure,” added Dilley.

Some Developers Deal with Pressure Better Than the Others

Of course, some of the developers are also immune to the sorts of pressures Dilley talked about in his response to the audience member’s question.

“They consider things that most people would not to be Champagne problems, and we’re transient stewards of a system and we do our best,” said Dilley.

In the past, former Blockstream CTO and longtime Bitcoin Core contributor Greg Maxwell stated that he was “pulling out the champaign[sic]” in response to the high fees that were seen on the network at the time.

At the end of the discussion around the bitcoin price’s effect on development efforts, Braiins Systems CEO Jan Čapek added that the pressures associated with Bitcoin protocol development are a good reason to test out new ideas on altcoins or sidechains before bringing them onto Bitcoin’s mainnet.