The Ford Model T has been invented, the automobile has arrived and nothing else must be done! A hand crank start motor, rear wheel drive only, wooden wheels, and transmission based braking system with no wheel brakes. Why would anyone need anything else?

Who could need seatbelts? Proper wheel based braking systems? An automated ignition engine? Why would people need reinforced steel frames? Buckle zones? Navigation systems? Shatter-safe glass? Airbags?

The Model T is perfect, it is the peak of the automobile and contains all features anyone would ever need!

This is what Bitcoiners sound like when arguing vehemently and irrationally against any and all changes to Bitcoin. It is no longer a reasoned position of conservatism, it is pure dogmatic cultism. Bitcoin has very serious problems to address, both in terms of active flaws to shortcomings that put at risk its chance of success as a global monetary network.

As far as active flaws right now, OP_CODESEPARATOR allows the construction of blocks that could take up to thirty minutes for a node on high end consumer hardware to validate. This is a denial of service attack vector on network users. The timewarp attack, a method to artificially crank the difficulty of the network lower than it should go, can be accomplished by miners manipulating timestamps in their blocks. An especially small transaction can be used to trick SPV wallets into thinking it is an internal node in a merkle tree of the block, allowing a malicious miner to include entirely fake transactions inside a non-existent branch of the block’s merkle tree that doesn’t actually exist.

These are active design flaws right now, with an increasing incentive to take advantage of the more valuable Bitcoin grows. Some just allow a single malicious block to drastically degrade network performance, others allow the malicious miner to actively profit. The timewarp attack offers a way to force the entire network along with an indirect blocksize increase by lowering the difficulty and keeping it low in order to produce blocks at a much faster rate. If enough of the economy supported it to convince miners to enforce it, there would be no way to opt out of it except hardforking.

That’s not to mention the massive shortcomings in terms of scalability. Bitcoin is simply not capable of supporting even a significant fraction of the world population in a self custodial way. If Bitcoin were to appreciate in value financially, most of the world would be relegated to custodial and trusted ways to interact with Bitcoin.

Lightning is very limited in how many channels can be opened or closed to enforce things on-chain in a high fee environment. The higher the fees, the more limited it will become in this regard. Ark in an optimistic case can be another way to deal with this, but in the non-cooperative case it becomes even worse. There is also another issue, the only way to do Ark right now is require every user in an Ark to all be online at the same time to pre-sign the necessary transactions to create an Ark. The more people, the higher the chance someone isn’t online and forces a non-cooperative case.

These issues cannot be solved without fundamental improvements to the Bitcoin protocol itself. Full stop. The limitations of the protocol as it is now does not give us the tool kit to properly solve these shortcomings in a way that does not compromise on the goal of providing people with a trustless form of interacting with their money.

People arguing that Bitcoin is good enough are brain dead cultists. They are no different than the hypothetical person who would argue the Ford Model T is enough, and there is nothing we can do to improve on it. 

This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

BRICS has surpassed the G7 in global economic power, and according to Vlad Putin, it’s just the beginning.

In 1992, the G7 held 45.5% of the world’s GDP, while BRICS sat at a small 16.7%. Fast forward to 2023, and BRICS now controls 37.4% of global GDP, while the G7 has dropped to 29.3%. Putin was clear:

“The gap is widening, and it will widen more. This is inevitable.”

Apparently BRICS is driving global growth in a way the G7 simply isn’t. “It is quite obvious that this role will increase in the future,” Putin said, emphasizing that BRICS countries are the engines behind the world’s economic rise.

The Russian president believes BRICS will generate most of the global GDP growth by the end of this decade, making them impossible to ignore.

BRICS boost global growth

The bloc now has a combined GDP of over $60 trillion, and their share of the global economy is growing fast.

This year, BRICS is expected to grow by 4%, which is way ahead of the G7’s projected 1.7%. Global growth is hovering around 3.2%, which puts BRICS right at the top.

But it’s not just about GDP growth. BRICS countries are leading in key industries. “BRICS accounts for about a quarter of global goods exports,” Putin said, pointing to the dominance of BRICS in markets like energy, metals, and food — sectors that are critical for global development.

Putin didn’t hesitate to point out that the collaboration within BRICS is delivering real results. He claimed that the partnership is helping boost economic development, improve living standards, and increase the well-being of people in member countries.

“Joint work of BRICS accelerates socio-economic growth,” he said, adding that this work directly affects the quality of life of ordinary citizens.

G7’s global influence slipping

The G7, made up of the U.S., Canada, Germany, the U.K., France, Italy, and Japan, is struggling to keep up now. The G7 has been trying to hold on to a rules-based international order, but BRICS is challenging that.

To understand the competition, you have to look at how the G7 was formed. The G7 came together in 1975 as a group of democratic industrialized nations to deal with economic problems. Back then, it was all about dealing with the oil crisis caused by the OPEC embargo.

Today, the G7 meets once a year. They don’t have a formal structure, no permanent secretariat, and no constitution. Each year, a different country leads the summit.

This year, it was Italy’s turn to host the summit in Apulia, where the group discussed artificial intelligence (AI), economic security, climate change, and international security.

The G7’s goal has always been to maintain peace and protect the free market. But BRICS has other plans. Putin’s message is that BRICS is now shaping the future and has the power to rewrite the rules.

G7 leaders know they’re in trouble. To counter BRICS, they’ve put forward a few ideas. First, the U.S. and its allies are working on new economic trade deals to try and pull BRICS nations closer.

South Africa is a key target. The U.S. already has a trade agreement with South Africa through the African Growth and Opportunity Act, but they’re looking to make it stronger.

The idea is to reduce South Africa’s dependence on China and Russia by offering them better terms with the West. They’re hoping that other BRICS members, like India or Egypt, might also be tempted by this.

AI is another area where the G7 is trying to gain ground. They started the Hiroshima AI Process at a summit in Japan back in 2023, aiming to create global rules for AI development.

Their goal is to beat BRICS to the punch by building a Western-led AI framework that upholds democracy and human rights.

But as of press time, it hasn’t gained the international traction they need. They’re pushing hard to make sure the world follows their lead on AI governance, but BRICS isn’t sitting idle.

Military power is also on the table. G7 members are increasing their military cooperation with India, the fourth-largest military power in the world, after America, China, and Russia.

India is seen as important when it comes to countering China’s influence. The U.S. is already working with India through the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (known as the Quad), alongside Japan and Australia.

But the G7 is pushing for more. They want joint military exercises with India, especially focusing on mountain warfare—training that could help India defend its borders against China.

India’s relationship with China is tense, particularly after a bloody border clash in 2020 that resulted in deaths on both sides.

The G7 sees this as an opportunity to deepen ties with India, and by doing so, they hope to weaken China’s military alliances.

Whether it’s military cooperation or economic deals, the G7 is trying every tactic to counter BRICS’ rise. But as Putin keeps reminding the world, BRICS isn’t slowing down.

And as Cryptopolitan reported, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen being incredibly chummy with Putin just a few months ago.