I have to call BS on this claim that Michael Saylor is now the overlord of bitcoin and can decide its fate alone. That's just ridiculous.
During a drama over whether MicroStrategy's valuation makes sense, Vinny Lingham <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/VinnyLingham/status/1861257367624601679″>declared Saylor is the second most powerful person in bitcoin after Satoshi Nakamoto. He argued that Saylor can dictate the terms by threatening to dump MicroStrategy's gigantic bitcoin stash if he doesn't get his way.
While questioning MicroStrategy is fair game, the idea that Saylor controls the fate of bitcoin is an intellectually dishonest dramatic provocation. Vinny knows better.
bitcoin is decentralized, permissionless, and consensus-based. No single entity, not even the largest holder, can dictate the conditions.
If influence was correlated with bitcoin holdings, the asset would have failed long ago. Governments could easily acquire 10% of the supply with their printing presses and control bitcoin, but that's not how it works.
Saylor cannot force protocol changes in bitcoin. Even if it mandates certain features, node operators have the real power in enforcing consensus rules. If Saylor forks bitcoin to make unilateral changes, the main chain persists while his fork dies, assuming it would be a worse version.
We have already seen this when early influencers like Roger Ver disagreed with the community. bitcoin continued to advance as the alternative Ver chain became irrelevant.
All of bitcoin's value comes from no one party controlling it. If the whales could centralize decision-making by purchasing large portions, the entire experiment would fail. Fortunately, that is impossible by design.
So while Saylor provides valuable perspective, his influence has limits. You cannot force developers, miners or nodes to follow your preferred roadmap. Your bitcoin stack gives you a voice at the table, not absolute authority.
No matter how many satoshis Saylor accumulates, he cannot unilaterally impose changes on a decentralized, leaderless network. bitcoin gains resilience precisely by avoiding such dominance.
Enough of this false narrative that Michael Saylor is now the dictator of bitcoin. He's an influential figure, sure, but he doesn't control the fate of bitcoin any more than you or I. That power remains dispersed.
This article is a Carry. The opinions expressed are entirely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of btc Inc or bitcoin Magazine.
