Key takeaways:
-
Bitcoin evolves on two clocks: gradual, consensus-driven modifications on the base layer and quick experimentation on the edges.
-
Main upgrades (comparable to Taproot) arrive via cautious delicate forks after lengthy evaluate.
-
Fast shifts comparable to Lightning funds and Ordinals occur with out altering Bitcoin’s core guidelines, which is why headlines transfer sooner than the L1.
-
The “50-year” line is a cue to have a look at the place change happens, whether or not within the core protocol or on the edge, earlier than judging whether or not Bitcoin has actually modified.
On November 10, 2025, Ripple chief know-how officer David Schwartz posted a deadpan line on X: “Bitcoin just isn’t the identical now because it was 50 years in the past.”
The gag works as a result of Bitcoin (BTC) launched in 2009, so the “50 years” is clearly tongue-in-cheek, nevertheless it landed as a result of it pointed to an even bigger reality about how individuals speak about Bitcoin’s evolution.
Schwartz’s quip got here in a thread arguing that “1 BTC = 1 BTC” and that volatility exists in fiat phrases, not in Bitcoin’s personal unit of account. This framing typically fuels absolutist takes about whether or not Bitcoin modifications in any respect.
Do you know? Rajat Soni, a critic of XRP (XRP), is a CFA charterholder and a Bitcoin-focused finance commentator lively on X.
The joke exposes the timescale confusion
Schwartz’s line works as a result of it highlights a mismatch in how individuals take into consideration time in crypto.
Headlines make it really feel as if Bitcoin modifications in a single day, however the foundations it stands on were built over decades:
-
Public-key cryptography (Diffie-Hellman, 1976)
-
Merkle bushes (1979)
-
Proof-of-work precursors comparable to Hashcash (1997 and 2002)
-
Digital-cash sketches comparable to Wei Dai’s B-money (1998).
Bitcoin’s 2008 design pulled many years of cryptographic work right into a single, operational system. As soon as a protocol with actual worth reaches scale, change slows as a result of coordination prices rise sharply. Researchers and builders now discuss with this dynamic as “protocol ossification.”
That gradual tempo can appear to be nothing is altering in any respect, however that’s not the case. A useful approach to consider it’s the Lindy effect, which says that the longer a non-perishable know-how has survived, the longer it’s more likely to survive. Because of this long-standing constructing blocks comparable to public-key cryptography and hash bushes proceed to help newer techniques. However the Lindy impact is just a heuristic, not a promise. It describes survival, not inevitability.
So, while you zoom out, the joke is a reminder that Bitcoin’s evolution runs on two completely different tempos: the decades-long lineage of its core elements and the sooner cycles we see in at the moment’s information.
Do you know? Segregated Witness (Bitcoin Enchancment Proposal 141) activated on Aug. 24, 2017, fixing transaction malleability and enabling capability and Lightning enhancements.
What modifications at Bitcoin’s core (and the way)
On the base layer, Bitcoin does change, however slowly and solely with broad settlement.
Most upgrades are soft forks, which tighten the foundations that nodes implement. Delicate forks create coordination danger between completely different variations of the software program. To scale back disruption, the group has spent years refining activation strategies comparable to BIP-9 and BIP-8 model bits.
In apply, a change strikes from dialogue and specification to testing and, if there may be clear help, an activation window the place miners and financial nodes sign readiness.
Taproot is the clearest latest instance. Proposed years earlier and activated in November 2021, it added Schnorr signatures and a brand new output kind that improves effectivity and privateness with out breaking present guidelines.
The trail from concept to activation required intensive evaluate and a miner signaling interval earlier than the foundations really switched on. It reveals that upgrades do arrive, however solely after affected person consensus-building.
Right this moment’s debates, comparable to reenabling “OP_CAT” or introducing “OP_CTV” (BIP-119), comply with the identical sample: incremental programmability proposals present process public analysis, danger evaluation and social evaluate earlier than any activation may even be thought-about.
The method is as a lot about coordination amongst maintainers, reviewers, miners and customers as it’s about code.
Do you know? Bitcoin Script is deliberately not Turing-complete, which limits complexity to maintain validation predictable and secure for all nodes.
The place speedy change occurs
The tempo quickens as soon as you progress away from Bitcoin’s base layer.
Cost channels transfer transactions offchain, route them over a mesh and contact the layer 1 solely as a backstop. Because of this the Lightning Community iterates far sooner than consensus modifications. Its core mechanics, together with hashed timelock contracts and newer approaches, comparable to level timelock contracts (PTLCs), let worth transfer throughout intermediaries with out belief.
PTLCs substitute hash-based secrets and techniques with elliptic-curve factors, giving channels higher privateness, extra versatile routing and the flexibility to separate funds throughout a number of paths. As a result of these enhancements reside in implementations somewhat than the bottom protocol, they will evolve without a hard consensus vote.
Ordinals and inscriptions present the identical fast-edge dynamic from one other angle: new behaviors rising by utilizing present guidelines. Casey Rodarmor’s scheme numbers satoshis and attaches knowledge to them via Taproot-era scripting, creating collectibles with out altering Bitcoin’s consensus. Because of this the phenomenon may explode culturally, whereas the bottom protocol remained unchanged.
Each examples spotlight the break up tempo the joke factors to: Layer 2s and client-side techniques can add options, UX enhancements and even new markets at excessive velocity, whereas the bottom layer modifications hardly ever and intentionally. Headlines are likely to comply with the sting, comparable to Lightning upgrades or inscription waves, whereas the chain’s core advances in fastidiously staged steps.
The deeper lesson
Schwartz’s “50-year Bitcoin” line sticks as a result of it compresses how crypto actually evolves right into a single joke: a gradual, conservative core that hardly ever modifications and a quick, ingenious edge that does.
The gradual core is by design. As soon as a financial protocol has billions at stake, upgrades transfer solely after prolonged evaluate and broad social consensus, a dynamic broadly mentioned as protocol ossification.
But gradual just isn’t the identical as caught. Concrete paths for change exist, such because the soft-fork monitor for brand spanking new opcodes like “OP_CAT” and “OP_CTV,” which may develop Bitcoin’s transaction programmability. These comply with multi-quarter or multi-year timelines somewhat than information cycles.
In the meantime, new conduct can explode on the edges with out touching consensus. Ordinals and inscriptions did precisely that by numbering satoshis and attaching knowledge utilizing guidelines already in place.
Overlook the years. Consider the comment as a decoder. If a declare about Bitcoin “altering” doesn’t specify the place (base layer or edge) and the way (consensus improve or emergent use), it’s lacking the purpose the joke highlighted.
