Statement on my removal from the Bitcoin Association Switzerland network

published Mar 04, 2022

I understand that I am not in the good graces of the owner of BAS network of channels, primarily because I have in the past pointed out an ethical disagreement we have (he made it visible in this channel).

He also knows I am not the only one who has made the same observation.

However, I have to point out that this channel — and others in the network — harbors several hotheaded verbally abusive intolerant individuals whose abuse is tolerated daily in the network, and I am not the only target of their abuse. These individuals exemplify with excellence the notion of "attack the person, not the idea", and for that reason they bring poison to these chats. The individual above, calling for my banning, is one of them.

If I were banned as a result of the abusers prevailing, or personal vendetta, I would be okay. None of my business, friends network, social life or professional network, is tied up in the Bitcoin Association Switzerland or its network. My wealth is certainly not tied to it.

It is a choice that the members of this network have to make — to keep the abusers and ban the targets of abuse, or to eliminate the abuse completely.

Either way, everyone is free to contact me and my associates privately, we run other, smaller, cozier networks where interesting material is always available. You are already familiar with the positive contributions I often make here, and in other channels of the network.

I've never lived my life by making cold circumstantial calculations of what lies or shibboleths to quietly assent to, in order to belong. While this may draw the ire of perverse individuals — and it does, often, as you can see — this is not going to change for a chat channel.