Tribalism has been around as long as the tribes themselves. Since humans organized themselves into social groups, we have hated the group in the next valley. Although we have a lot more in common with them than we would like to admit.
Therefore, it is not surprising that bitcoiners and ethereans maintain a long-standing rivalry. As the largest blockchain ecosystems, each running on a different architecture and supporting different use cases, there are fundamental differences between bitcoin and ethereum.
These differences are not only technical but also cultural. Just as the flora and fauna of Madagascar evolved differently from those of larger landmasses, the various crypto tribes form their own culture, memes, and ideology over time. In the end, like Montague and Capulet, they can't even remember why they didn't like each other in the first place.
But it wasn't always like this: and it doesn't have to stay that way. There are signs that the rivalry that has polarized bitcoiners and ethereums is beginning to thaw. If these enemies can bury the hatchet and work together, it will make web3 a better place for everyone.
From divergence to convergence
It's easy to forget that ethereum was born from bitcoin. Vitalik Buterin got his start at bitcoin Magazine and regularly appeared on the Bitcointalk forum. When the ethereum ICO was ethereum/”>held In 2014, funds were raised at a ratio of 2000 eth per btc. It's also easy to forget that many of the use cases now synonymous with ethereum have bitcoin ancestors, such as Colored Coins, precursors to nfts. Even the concept of Layer 2 has origins in bitcoin. But all that is ancient history.
btc has taken on the role of store of value and global reserve currency, while eth has become the fuel that launched 100 EVM chains and 10,000 tokens. Along the way, the continental drift separating the two ecosystems has been accelerated by ethereum's move to Proof-of-Stake, leaving bitcoin as the only coin in the top 20 outside of DOGE, which is still tied to the Work test.
While the differences between bitcoin and ethereum are stark, they are not irreconcilable. One of the most fascinating aspects of the evolution of chain use cases is the way each has emulated the other. ethereum is on its way to becoming a somewhat stable store of value of its own and looks poised to follow bitcoin in receiving an ETF.
Meanwhile, bitcoin has belatedly spawned its own multi-chain, multi-token ecosystem thanks to Ordinals, BRC20, Runes, Stacks, and similar protocols. DeFi and nfts, native to bitcoin, now exist, even if most maximalists disagree. While it remains to be seen if bitcoin DeFi takes off, it's clear that there is now more uniting the two chains than dividing them. bitcoin and ethereum have moved in opposite directions over the years, but their paths are finally starting to converge.
Choose technology, not tribalism
Rather than arguing over which technology trumps who, or who implemented it first, there are clear benefits to the bitcoin and ethereum communities in putting aside their differences. Just as globalism diminished petty tribalism (even if we simply swapped hatred of the guy in the next valley for hatred of internet strangers), the multi-chain era has made blockchain wars useless.
bitcoin and ethereum are no longer isolated islands but rather interconnected hubs that routinely exchange value through bridges, portals, and wrappers. Isn't it time they started exchanging developer talents too? Builders have a responsibility to find ways in which both technologies can improve each other. This is the key to scaling web3 and increasing its adoption.
The rise of Ordinals has shown that there is great interest in using the bitcoin network as more than just a means to store value. But developing more utility natively is complex since the network is not Turing complete in nature and its simplistic UTXO model and limited block space cannot handle complex data and calculations.
While many avenues have been explored to scale bitcoin, they were all based on a level of centralization until the Taproot update that brought the Schnorr Signature and MAST contracts. These updates have made it possible to design fully reliable bridges between the bitcoin ecosystem and other networks, allowing for truly decentralized scaling solutions to be implemented.
The ethereum ecosystem already hosts a robust set of tools, smart contracts, and applications that can be used to bring greater compatibility and functionality to bitcoin. It makes much more sense for bitcoin to inherit technology that already exists for certain functions rather than rebuilding them from scratch.
Scale bitcoin, improve ethereum
An obvious solution to scaling bitcoin to the consumer level and creating new use cases is to use Taproot-enabled functionality to create trusted bridges between bitcoin and EVM-compatible networks. This can create a wave of new opportunities for both ecosystems by unlocking new ways for bitcoin holders to participate while also increasing liquidity within ethereum-based chains.
While the possibility of using EVM-compatible technology to scale the bitcoin ecosystem is promising, perhaps the biggest challenge to overcome is not technological but cultural. While human ingenuity knows no bounds, our tendency to drag each other down like a bucket of crabs remains deeply ingrained.
All crypto communities should strive to avoid the cutthroat behaviors web2 was built on and find ways to collaborate. Only once this is done can web3 reach its full potential. As Biggie said, “Can't we all just get along?”
This is a guest post by Yves La Rose. The opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of btc Inc or bitcoin Magazine.
