I have to call BS on this claim that Michael Saylor is now the master of Bitcoin and can decide his fate on his own. This is just ridiculous.
During some drama over whether MicroStrategy’s valuation makes sense, Vinnie Lingham said Announce Saylor is the second most powerful person in Bitcoin after Satoshi Nakamoto. He said Saylor could dictate terms by threatening to dump MicroStrategy’s giant bitcoin stash if he didn’t get his way.
While skepticism about MicroStrategy is fair game, the idea of Saylor controlling Bitcoin’s fate is dramatic and intellectually dishonest. Vinnie knows best.
Bitcoin is decentralized, permissionless, and consensus-based. No single entity, not even the largest holder, can dictate terms.
If leverage were tied to Bitcoin holdings, the asset would have failed long ago. Governments could easily take 10% of the supply with their printing presses and control Bitcoin – but that’s not how it works.
Saylor cannot force protocol changes on Bitcoin. Even if it requires certain features, node operators hold the real power by enforcing consensus rules. If Saylor forks Bitcoin to make unilateral changes, the main chain continues while his fork dies, assuming that would be a worse version.
We’ve already seen this when early influencers like Roger Ver disagreed with society. Bitcoin continued to be trucked in while the alternative Ver chain became irrelevant.
Bitcoin’s entire value stems from the fact that no party has control over it. If whales could centralize decision-making by purchasing large quantities, the whole experiment would fail. Fortunately, this is impossible by design.
So, while Saylor offers a valuable perspective, his influence has limits. He cannot force developers, miners, or nodes to follow his preferred roadmap. His Bitcoin collection buys him a voice at the table, not absolute power.
No matter how many satoshi Saylor accumulates, he cannot unilaterally impose changes on a decentralized, leaderless network. Bitcoin derives resilience precisely from preventing such domination.
This false narrative is enough that Michael Saylor is now the dictator of Bitcoin. He’s an influential figure, to be sure – but he doesn’t control the fate of Bitcoin any more than you or I do. That power remains dispersed.
This article is a takes. The opinions expressed are entirely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.