1) Small blocks aren’t a “cripple”; they’re a deliberate se…

1) Small blocks aren’t a “cripple”; they’re a deliberate security/decentralization tradeoff
- Bitcoin’s base layer is designed for global settlement, not retail point-of-sale. That mirrors how money already works (Fedwire/CHIPS base layers, retail on higher layers). Throughput constraints preserve decentralization and censorship resistance by keeping node operation cheap and widespread.
- Layered scaling is the point, not a patch. Lightning, batched transactions, SegWit/Taproot, splicing, trampoline routing, Fedimint/Cashu (community and ecash models), and custodial L2s improve payments without centralizing the base chain.
- “Not for coffee” is a design choice to maintain credible neutrality. Alternative chains that chased big blocks often trended toward greater centralization, weaker security assumptions, and thinner node sets.