Ruby on Rails Creator Capitulates on Bitcoin After Seeing Canadian Government’s Response to Freedom Convoy – Featured Bitcoin News

The creator of Ruby on Rails says the situation in Canada is “terrifying” and “a real wakeup call.” He admits that he was wrong about bitcoin and cryptocurrency. “A few months ago, I would not have found it credible if you said a three-week peaceful protest in Canada could have led to martial law, frozen bank accounts, and terrorist-financing laws being used to hunt protest donors,” he stressed.

‘I Was Wrong, We Need Crypto’

David Heinemeier Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails (DHH), admitted that he had been wrong about cryptocurrency and bitcoin.

Ruby on Rails (or Rails) is a web-based server-side application framework that was written in Ruby and released under the MIT License. Hansson, a Danish programmer is also a Partner at Basecamp, which offers web-based software development.

Hansson outlined why he changed his mind about bitcoin and crypto in an opinion piece titled “I was wrong, we need crypto,” published Monday.

“To say I’ve been skeptical about Bitcoin and the rest of the crypto universe would be an understatement of epic proportions,” Hansson began, noting that he has been condemning bitcoin since the early 2010s. He cited many reasons for his opposition, including “Bitcoin’s grotesque energy consumption, the ridiculous transaction fees and low throughput, the incessant pump ‘n’ dump schemes in shitcoins,” and the Tether “fraud.”

He now admits:

My biggest beef came from a lack imagination.

The programmer explained that while he could see the benefits of bitcoin and cryptocurrency in countries like Venezuela, China, or Iran, the vast number of bitcoin boosters are “living in stable Western democracies governed by the rule of law.”

Recent events have changed Trudeau’s mind. The Trudeau government invoked the Emergencies Act to stop the Freedom Convoy trucker protest. Act provides that financial institutions, crypto exchanges, and banks can freeze accounts of protesters and their crypto wallets with no consequences.

Hansson said:

I doubt it would have been credible three months ago if someone said that peaceful protests in Canada had led to the establishment of martial law and freezing bank accounts. Terrorist-finance laws were also used to pursue protest donor donors. It was unbelievable then and it is undisputed now.

“This is crazy. This is absolutely insane. Terrifying,” he described the situation.

“Is France really that different from Canada? Austria or France? Is Denmark? This is a real wake-up call,” he exclaimed.

“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,” Hansson conceded, concluding:

It’s clear to me now that I was too hasty to completely dismiss crypto on the basis of all the things wrong with it at the moment. Instead of appreciating the fundamental freedom to transact that it’s currently our best shot at protecting.

Can the Canadian situation change your opinion about cryptocurrency and bitcoin?

Kevin Helms

Kevin, a student of Austrian Economics and a Bitcoin evangelist since 2011, was one of the first to discover Bitcoin. His main interests are in Bitcoin security, open source systems, network effects, cryptography, and intersections between economics, cryptography, and Cryptography.