Jimmy Song: The truth about Orinals and BRC20 popularity

Bitcoin developer and author of "Programming Bitcoin" Jimmy Song published a post "Altcoin Redux" on Nostr on January 1, 2024, analyzing the reasons for the increasing popularity of Orinals and BRC20. He believes that enough people realize the nature of altcoins and distinguish between Bitcoin and altcoins. BTC is a stable currency, and altcoins are fiat currencies 2.0. Tokens issued on Ethereum or Solana now have little chance of escaping the “junk coin” label. Now these altcoins are being issued under the guise of changing their names on Bitcoin. Golden Finance 0xjs compiled the full text of Jimmy Song’s post:

To some extent, the Ordinals scam can be regarded as a good sign. Altcoins have long been associated with Bitcoin by the name "cryptocurrency" and have used Bitcoin's good reputation to scam people by pumping and selling.

But as we have seen, this narrative is no longer what it used to be. Enough people have recognized the nature of the altcoin pump-and-dump and Bitcoin’s continued rise that there is a distinction between Bitcoin and altcoins. One is sound currency and the other is fiat currency 2.0. In other words, the altcoin scams are starting to fade and the returns aren’t what they once were.

This is why Orinals and BRC20 are becoming more and more popular. Tokens issued on Ethereum or Solana now have little chance of escaping the “junk coin” label. The gulf between Bitcoin and altcoins is so wide that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to cross it to scam newbies. But by issuing tokens on Bitcoin, there is more room for confusion. They can claim to support Bitcoin through fees while running the same scam. They change their names and disguise themselves so they won't be caught. It's like a snake oil dealer leaving one town to go to another to scam a bunch of fools.

But this is where we need to be more vigilant. Those perpetrating scams are using insider talk. Scammers try to trick people by making specious claims. They can talk about sound money, autonomy and property rights, even quite convincingly. Except of course the tokens they want you to buy.

Now is the time to differentiate between Bitcoin supporters and spamcoin supporters. They are pumping and dumping, but under a new rationale, a new guise, and a new name. They will fool a lot of people. In fact, they attract the same people who hyped altcoins in the past. The altcoin space is the scorched earth they left behind, and they want to implement the same policy “on top” of Bitcoin.

Don’t let them take over Bitcoin. Reject these charlatans and be ashamed of their deceitful behavior. If you throw your hands up and say there is nothing you can do, you are wrong. You can do something by exposing their truth. They are scams, and the faster they fail, the better for Bitcoin. As we have seen with altcoins in the past, ignoring them does not make them go away. What we need is to speak out and ruthlessly expose their fraud.