Erik Voorhees, an early cryptocurrency adopter and the CEO of ShapeShift, a popular cryptocurrency exchange, has argued that Bitcoin needs to be very “conservative” and those contributing to the ongoing development of the flagship cryptocurrency should refrain from “trying out every new idea.”

Voorhees, the former owner of crypto gambling website SatoshiDice, noted that “Bitcoin can’t be optimized for every variable.” His comments came during the “What Bitcoin Did” podcast hosted on March 22, in which he said BTC is not meant to be the “most innovative” and the “most conservative” digital asset – all at the same time.

“Vastly Better Off Than Any Bank”

Voorhees went on to explain that it’s not practical to try to integrate “every desirable” attribute or feature into the Bitcoin protocol. Commenting on the different use cases being worked on by other blockchain networks, Voorhees remarked:

I think there should be [more blockchain-based platforms] that are more centralized and with higher throughput and there should be chains that are less centralized with less throughput and having both of those in existence actually makes the whole crypto ecosystem stronger and in both cases we’re still vastly better off than any bank.

Hostile Conversations

In his second appearance on Peter McCormack’s What Bitcoin Did podcast, Voorhees stated there should be “open discourse between people where long points can be made” – which can then lead back to meaningful “feedback and discussion.”

The ShapeShift founder criticized how Twitter users currently communicate with each other as he believes conversations on the microblogging platform can take on a rather hostile tone. Describing the heated arguments on Twitter, Voorhees said people “take 288 character abs at each other.”

Bitcoin Is Not The Only Project With Potential

Acknowledging he used to be a Bitcoin maximalist, Voorhees noted he began thinking differently around late 2013. He revealed that his views on Bitcoin began to change after he reviewed more basic monetary theory and also when he studied about money just being a medium-of-exchange (MoE) as it’s simply used to hold value. At that time, altcoin projects seemed like a “huge distraction,” Voorhees said.

However, gradually the CEO realized that if you’re truly interested in decentralization, then you should look into more blockchain projects and be receptive to exploring other ideas.