The Block Size War | Book Review

The Block Size War: How Bitcoin Survived Its Own Civil War What happens when powerful groups fight over who controls the rules of a system no one owns? In this episode, Watson, B. Sovereign, and Drew review The Block Size War by Jonathan Bier— the inside story of Bitcoin's most consequential internal conflict. From 2015 to 2017, two camps clashed over a deceptively simple question: should Bitcoin increase its block size to compete with Visa? But the real fight wasn't about megabytes. It was about legitimacy — who actually has the authority to change Bitcoin's consensus rules, and how. What you'll walk away with: Why hash power doesn't equal final authority (and why most people get this wrong) The difference between soft forks and hard forks — and why it changed everything How the User Activated Soft Fork (UASF) proved that distributed users can override even the most well-funded opposition Why narratives are weapons, and how coordination channels became the real battlefield A reusable governance model for any decentralized protocol Whether you're a developer, a Bitcoin holder, or just someone who's ever felt trapped by a platform that changed its rules overnight — this episode is for you. Slides, companion links, and a one-page protocol audit checklist are in the show notes. Drop your strongest counterargument in the comments — we'll review it on air. 🌐 More at bitlemmas.com