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Calin Culianu is the #1 contributor to the Electron Cash project. Also, he contributes to BCHN, and has created the Fulcrum server. Definitely a Bitcoin Cash hero in my book. I picked his brain a bit about all things Bitcoin Cash, and got some juicy answers. Calin likes to talk, so let\u2019s check it out.<\/strong><\/p>\n Jonald Fyookball (JF): So Calin, how did you get into crypto?<\/strong><\/p>\n Calin Culianu (CC): <\/strong>You got time? All right. I had a friend who was, I used to play games with him online. We were part of this crew online. This was like 10 years ago, or whatever, like in 2012. And he was telling me about Bitcoin and it piqued my curiosity. I didn\u2019t know anything about it. And he was telling me how you could mine and you do transactions through your computer, and it sounded so weird. And I was like what is this stupid shit?<\/p>\n And I didn\u2019t pay attention to it, and then I heard that podcast with Joe Rogan and Andreas Antonopoulos. When Bitcoin hit $1,000, that\u2019s when I decided to get into it, which was not the best time to get into it.<\/p>\n And then, Satoshi. I think he was still, was he still around? I think he might have still been around when I first was reading about it. He was still in the forums. He hadn\u2019t disappeared yet.<\/p>\n Can I just say one more thing, the thing that drew me, I realized how this is outside of the whole system, outside the banks, the government can\u2019t fuck with me. I was like I can put some of my money here just in case things go belly up. This is outside of that. Why not? Why don\u2019t I just put some of my wealth in this, and then it\u2019s just like covering your bases. It felt really free. It felt liberating. I felt free. I don\u2019t know. There\u2019s something about freedom in it that really appealed to me.<\/p>\n JF: Where were you when the whole scaling debate started blowing up?<\/strong><\/p>\n CC:<\/strong> I mean it felt like a betrayal because the whole thing was like this is going to become global money. And Satoshi, on the Bitcointalk forum, I mean he was talking about how he was going to scale it. People were asking him: can this really scale? And he was like yeah, we\u2019re just going to\u2026 hard drives are going to be cheap someday. Some day you can download a DVD movie in five minutes. It\u2019s not a big deal.<\/p>\n And the whole, everyone was on board with that. We\u2019ll grow this thing until it can\u2019t grow anymore. We\u2019re going to become global money. It\u2019s permissionless money. It was so weird. It\u2019s like one day your wife comes home and she\u2019s like I\u2019m a man. Haha. I thought we were married. It\u2019s like a betrayal. You don\u2019t expect it. It\u2019s like random. Like the whole thing about them not wanting to raise the blocksize, it felt ridiculous. I was like: what\u2019s going on? I can\u2019t even believe we\u2019re arguing about this. It was obvious to me.<\/p>\n And then, there were the guys talking about Lightning. So, they were like Lightning, Lightning, this and that. None of these smart guys know what they\u2019re doing. But, it still felt shady. It felt like these guys are scamming us.<\/p>\n JF: We\u2019ve been through several forks, now, and it\u2019s just like the same pattern, like some idiot wants to do something with the chain, and then people follow them. What\u2019s up with that?<\/strong><\/p>\n CC:<\/strong> I don\u2019t know. Is it tribalism? Is it finding a niche? Like you find your little tribe, you\u2019re like, all right, this is my group now. Maybe we\u2019re drawn to the social aspect, like this is a bunch of people I can hang out with. I mean we do the same thing, Bitcoin cash, we all hang out on Telegram and stuff.<\/p>\n I think that\u2019s an aspect of it like who you know. I feel like Blockstream, they poured money into this, man. They poured, and just spinning that narrative, it was professional, dude.<\/p>\n And there\u2019s people that have different levels of information about a topic and it\u2019s all over the spectrum. Even us, like we have higher levels of information, but, we\u2019re also influenced socially by the people we know. And if you have less information or less idealism, or all you want to do is buy a Lambo, or, and it\u2019s all like this spectrum of different sorts of motivations and levels of knowledge, and levels of idealism. It\u2019s like a huge gray area, right, so depending on where you lie on that and who you know, you can end up following fucking ridiculous shit like Bitcoin Core.<\/p>\n JF: You were never really involved in developing\u2026 I know you\u2019re involved in Bitcoin Cash development. But, were you ever involved in Bitcoin BTC<\/a> development?<\/strong><\/p>\n CC:<\/strong> Not at all. Like just writing little tools and stuff. Like I wrote like a little tool to like encrypt your key with bit 38 that nobody paid any attention to. It seemed like the software side was handled, and there were already projects, and no one really asked me to work on it, and I didn\u2019t know much about Bitcoin internals at all.<\/p>\n JF: How did you get involved with software development in the first place? Did you go to school for that?<\/strong><\/p>\n CC:<\/strong> Yeah, I went to school. I mean I got a computer science degree. I was always into computers. I was seven years old when I got my first computer. It was a Commodore 64.<\/p>\n JF: It seems like you\u2019ve taken your programming skills to a pretty high level. How did you do that?<\/strong><\/p>\n CC:<\/strong> Well, what else am I going to do? I grew up to a single mom, immigrant family in Queens in a working-class neighborhood. I\u2019m like I got to do something. There was also a need. I grew up kind of poor, and I always wanted to be more financially secure, so I sort of sacrificed a lot to get really good,, out of necessity, it was like paranoia. What else are you going to do with your life? You might as well be good at one thing or two things. I was like a really smart kid, so I\u2019m competitive about my intelligence, I guess.<\/p>\n And I got my first programming job, and like all the programmers were dicks, and they were rude to me because I didn\u2019t know anything. And that really made me angry. I was going to show these guys, I\u2019ll show them someday. I mean you can imagine that kind of scenario, you come out of school with.<\/p>\n JF: But then, pretty soon after you were working for someone else, you started doing your own like app development and stuff like that, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n CC:<\/strong> Yeah. I couldn\u2019t stand the whole corporate, I don\u2019t know, it just felt pointless. And also, software people have a lot of capacity to generate new ideas and new solutions, especially when I started working, it was like in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n JF: Well, I think you have to be a little bit entrepreneurial-minded.<\/strong><\/p>\n CC:<\/strong> Yeah. And you have to, like some people like having a comfortable life, just get a paycheck. People look at you funny, oh my god, you quit your job, what are you going to do. There\u2019s like social pressure. First of all, I like risk a lot. I enjoy risk. I mean I don\u2019t enjoy ridiculous risk, but I enjoy risk more than most people, I think. I don\u2019t like to be super cozy and comfortable. I don\u2019t like routine, so, yeah, I pretty much quit.<\/p>\n JF: So how\u2019d you get involved in Bitcoin Cash?<\/strong><\/p>\n CC:<\/strong> Yeah. It was random. So, you know FreeTrader, right? He had started this subReddit called BTCForks. I don\u2019t know if he started it, but he was involved in it. And people were talking since the beginning of 2017 about forking. Let\u2019s just freakin fork it. Let\u2019s see what happens. Because there was Bitcoin. There was BU. And there was like XT, and they were also following the same chain, and they were trying to figure out ways to make that chain change. And then, some people were just like: screw it. Let\u2019s just fork it. We\u2019re never going to convince these people.<\/p>\n So, I think he teamed up with Amaury in like June or something. They started working. They started forking Bitcoin Core. And then, FreeTrader posted on Reddit. He\u2019s like, hey, does anybody know Windows programming because we\u2019re stuck here with something. And I responded. I was like oh, yeah, I know Windows programming. I\u2019ve done a lot of Windows programming. I just started helping them with stuff.<\/p>\n JF: What\u2019s been the experience like overall with the Electron Cash project?<\/strong><\/p>\n CC:<\/strong> It\u2019s been excellent. It\u2019s been amazing. It\u2019s been mostly fun, I would say. And the only annoying parts are my own personality getting in the way when I sort of get worked up, and I get consumed. But, as far as the people involved, they\u2019re all just excellent, excellent people involved.<\/p>\n JF: What do you see as the future of the wallet in terms of features or development?<\/strong><\/p>\n CC:<\/strong> Electron Cash is like the Swiss Army. It really is. It\u2019s got a lot of features. It\u2019s kind of fun to just keep building it out, right? I mean just keep adding stuff, adding details. I don\u2019t know. I like details. I\u2019m a detail-oriented person. I like the fact that EC has all these features, and that it\u2019s kind of hard of use. But once you start getting used to it, it\u2019s actually really awesome.<\/p>\n I remember some people were talking about it becoming more user friendly for newbies and stuff, but maybe there could be that, but I don\u2019t know. There are other wallets that do that really well, like Bitcoin.com wallet. There should be at least one wallet that\u2019s more technical.<\/p>\n JF: What are some things that excite you about Bitcoin cash overall?<\/strong><\/p>\n CC:<\/strong> Man, I don\u2019t know. That\u2019s a hard question. I feel like I\u2019ve been spending a lot of time in the forest, in the trees, I\u2019ve been spending a lot of time in the trees. I can\u2019t see the forest. Sometimes, like, recently, I was working with BCHN stuff, and I\u2019m, what excites me? What I want to happen is I want people to wake up and realize BTC<\/a> is just so strangled. It\u2019s just so compromised. I don\u2019t know. I feel like we can be the coin. I feel like that can happen. It keeps me sort of motivated a little bit even though it sounds like a pipe dream at this point. It sounds like, I don\u2019t know. It feels like Dumb and Dumber, oh, so there\u2019s a chance. But, I really feel like that\u2019s true. I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n JF: All we need is more demand for onchain transactions, I think.<\/strong><\/p>\n CC:<\/strong> Yeah. If there\u2019s more demand for crypto transactions and people paying in crypto.<\/p>\n JF: So, let\u2019s talk about BCHN, though, I mean that whole thing started out of kind of a response to ABC\u2019s move, their shenanigans, and stuff.<\/strong><\/p>\n CC:<\/strong> Yeah. It was like f**k, these guys are threatening to screw everything up. What are we going to do?<\/p>\n JF: So, was that kind of like d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu? Like Core messed with us, BSV<\/a> messed with us, and now ABC is going to\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah, totally. It\u2019s like the same thing, again, but different. But, the same. It\u2019s like what, I can\u2019t believe this shit. I didn\u2019t think Amaury would be that crazy.<\/p>\n JF: Sometimes I find I overestimate people.<\/strong><\/p>\n CC:<\/strong> I think that everyone does that. We all do it. And the thing is, people can be really well-intentioned and really genuine, and then they may change for some reason later. People are like that.<\/p>\n <\/ins> <\/ins> <\/p>\n JF: A lot of people are probably wondering like, well, what\u2019s the governance like going to be now going forward? How do we know we\u2019re not going to repeat the same mistakes, or what\u2019s your take on the current leadership with Bitcoin cash and BCHN?<\/strong><\/p>\n CC:<\/strong> That is a sensitive thing.. I\u2019m not sure what the solution is to that. But, I see what you\u2019re saying. And I see that right now, it\u2019s just like a bunch of nice guys, sort of not being bad. You\u2019re not being evil. It\u2019s like me and FreeTrader. And that\u2019s not necessarily stable, long-term, right?<\/p>\n That is an issue. But, the thing is what I hope to happen is that I hope no one implementation has too much power. I just hope, but then that\u2019s not guaranteed, right? The thing is it\u2019s a mind game here. Everything is a mind game when it comes to people and open source. It\u2019s MIT licensed. The blockchain doesn\u2019t collapse if developers die. The blockchain would continue. You would just keep parsing transactions.<\/p>\n So, it\u2019s like an illusion that developers should have this much power. It\u2019s a complete total illusion. Yes, it\u2019s important to have good developers in case there\u2019s an emergency. It\u2019s important to have good developers in case you want new features because you don\u2019t want them developing buggy software. But, they shouldn\u2019t have enough power to be able to dictate economic policy. And I\u2019m a developer, and I\u2019m saying this.<\/p>\n JF: Seems like we dodged a bullet with the ABC fork, because ABC was so over-the-top, they defeated themselves. We got lucky. But we weren\u2019t so lucky in the BTC<\/a> fork.<\/strong><\/p>\n CC:<\/strong> Well, with the BTC<\/a> fork there were a couple of differences. One, they had financing. They had a whole lot of money. They were actually a company that actually employed people, that actually had money.<\/p>\n And so, they had their shit way together more than Amaury, who doesn\u2019t have any structure. It\u2019s just him being a little dictator without any structure. Blockstream was much more dangerous because of that.<\/p>\n But, yeah, I mean that can happen again. Let\u2019s say BTC<\/a> collapses and BCH<\/a> becomes the number one coin in five years. You know all the evil people in the world that sabotage BTC<\/a>. I\u2019m convinced some finance people, or Blockstream type people. There\u2019s people that are going to show up again and they\u2019re going to try to corrupt BCH<\/a>. And like what do we do? We don\u2019t have any way to defend against that.<\/p>\n JF: We just need more education, more awareness, I guess.<\/strong><\/p>\n CC:<\/strong> More awareness. Do we need governance? I don\u2019t know. Some smart people are really into the idea of governance, something needs to be structured. I don\u2019t know, either. I really don\u2019t know. I\u2019m not an expert on this topic, and I don\u2019t know, and it seems like any governance can be corrupted. But, maybe it\u2019s harder to corrupt a government. I have no idea, man. I do see that there\u2019s a problem as far as that goes. We don\u2019t want this to keep happening.<\/p>\n JF: So, what do you see as the future of crypto in society in the far future or in the medium future?<\/strong><\/p>\n CC:<\/strong> I think it\u2019s just inevitable. Like the fact that you can take money into your own hands. It\u2019s out of the box. Pandora\u2019s box has been opened. The genie is out of the bottle. It\u2019s not going to be uninvented. People are going to find more reasons to use it in the future, especially as we get stuck home where we enter this new reality that they\u2019re imposing upon us. Governments are printing more money. I feel like somehow it\u2019ll just start to crop up more and more in people\u2019s lives like they need to use crypto.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/bitcoincash.jpg\")
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