[wemysh]

The current situation reminds me a lot of the time when Firefox replaced Internet Explorer as the most popular browser. And of the time when Chrome replaced Firefox as the most popular browser.

Currently there is only one Bitcoin implementation. And the developers a) refuse to implement what users want. And b) implement bloat that users dont't want.

So Bitcoin will "break up" in a similar way the WWW "broke up" when new browsers were introduced.

It's a good thing.

[rntz]

The WWW's fundamental job is not to establish consensus. It is to communicate information. Incompatible changes to the web and incompatible changes to the bitcoin protocol have very different significance.

[wemysh]

    different significance

Citation needed.

Its not as if somebodies coins will suddenly become worthless.

Bitcoin has a lot of actors. Users, investors, miners, exchanges, shops... And everybody will have some hassle with a fork.

Just like on the WWW where there are webmasters, webdesigners, users, browser vendors, shops... And every has some hassle with browser compatibility.

[rntz]

> Its not as if somebodies coins will suddenly become worthless.

I think this is in fact the nightmare scenario that some folks are worried about.

I agree with you it's unlikely to happen, because it's in very few people's interests, but I think that the degree of danger is exactly what's causing people to try so vigorously to find ways to co-operate on this matter.

And it's true that browsers also have incentive toward compatibility. But the fact is, despite this incentive, browsers remain in many ways incompatible. And for the most part, nobody notices, because minor incompatibilities in browsers do not "fork" the web the same way an incompatibility in bitcoin protocol forks the blockchain.

[JohnTHaller]

Internet Explorer is still the most popular browser among users worldwide. Chrome is the most popular browser among certain techies. Chrome is also popular among users tricked into installing it via forced bundleware with Java updates, free antivirus engine updates, and (ironically) Flash plugin downloads for Firefox.

[pbhjpbhj]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers#Su...

[JohnTHaller]

Apologies. I'd skimmed this earlier and thought we were only talking about desktop browser share instead of overall.

[bhousel]

Oh hi 2012, what are you doing here?

[PhasmaFelis]

Just like IE is popular among users tricked into installing it via forced bundleware with Windows?

[reitanqild]

Microsoft was forced to include the browser choice thing for a few years in Europe.

I wish someone would take a closer look at how Google push Chrome as well.