Saylor Sounds Alarm on Internal Governance Risks Threatening Bitcoin's Future

Michael Saylor has warned that the biggest challenge Bitcoin faces is not external threats, but internal governance risks. In a post on X, he stated that 'Bitcoin has already won' but must be protected from 'internal corruption'. The most serious threat to Bitcoin, according to Saylor, comes from factions within the network that modify rules and seize economic rights.

He emphasizes that the consensus rules of Bitcoin are its constitution, defining asset ownership, scarcity, settlement mechanisms, and power structures. Any modification of these rules can harm the economic rights of current participants and future generations.

Saylor criticizes proposals such as BIP-110, which involves transaction review mechanisms, arguing that they represent a faction modifying Bitcoin's rules and shifting costs onto all participants. He also warns against increasing block size and introducing complex scripting mechanisms, citing potential risks to network security and bandwidth costs.

Saylor believes that once a group can change consensus rules through political means, other groups will follow suit, leading to a continuous protocol war, capital flight, stagnation of innovation, and decreased security. He concludes by calling for Bitcoin to maintain a simple, neutral, scarce, and secure base layer, with innovation occurring in the peripheral ecosystem.