Ruby on Rails creator says criticizing Bitcoin was a mistake

Ruby on Rails creator David Heinemeier Hansson says his previously negative stance toward Bitcoin was a mistake in light of the protests in Canada.

“I still can’t believe that this is the protest that would prove every Bitcoin crank a prophet. And for me to have to slice a piece of humble pie, and admit that I was wrong on crypto’s fundamental necessity in Western democracies.” https://t.co/9smNKyabm0

— DHH (@dhh) February 21, 2022

“I still can’t believe that this is the protest that would prove that every Bitcoin crank is a prophet. And I had to admit I was wrong about Bitcoin’s fundamental necessity in Western democracies,” wrote the Danish programmer.

Since late January, protests against anti‑Covid restrictions have unfolded in Canada, led by truckers. On February 15, Prime Minister Justin Trudeauinvoked the 1988 Emergencies Act, which gives the government broad powers to restore order and allows banks to freeze the personal accounts of everyone connected with or supporting the demonstrations without a court order.

Canada’s Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said that the aforementioned law extends “to crowdfunding platforms and payment service providers, … all forms of transactions, including digital assets such as cryptocurrencies.”

In a blog post Hansson recalled that since the early 2010s he has been skeptical of Bitcoin and the crypto industry more broadly. He said the main arguments against included “energy consumption in mining, transaction fees, lack of real decentralization, alleged fraud involving the stablecoin Tether (USDT)” and other concerns.

“Now it’s clear that I rushed to abandon cryptocurrencies altogether because of everything that is wrong with them at the moment. Rather than valuing the fundamental freedom to transact that we can now protect best,” the programmer stressed.

Crypto podcast host Neil Jacobs retweeted Hansson’s post and noted that the article about Bitcoin contains “tons of lies.”

Tons of falsehoods in this article about bitcoin. But still shows the situation in Canada is going to accelerate bitcoin adoption. #bitcoin https://t.co/EylgpLCbEg

— Neil Jacobs (@NeilJacobs) February 21, 2022

“But it nonetheless shows that the situation in Canada will accelerate Bitcoin adoption,” he conceded.

On February 15, Morgan Creek Digital co‑founder Anthony Pompliano also noted that “authoritarian power is Bitcoin’s marketing team.”

Authoritarian governments are Bitcoin’s marketing team.

— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) February 15, 2022

Similar views were voiced by Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin. He said the measures by Canadian authorities clearly illustrate why cryptocurrencies exist. At the same time, he did not condone the protesters’ actions.

Earlier, Kraken and Binance chiefs allowed for the possibility of asset blockages at the request of law enforcement without a court order. Jesse Powell and Changpeng Zhao urged using non-custodial wallets and decentralized platforms.

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