@Adam Back just circling back — I deleted my Core node recently, but please don’t take it personally at all.
Blockstream remains, in my view, your strongest contribution to the ecosystem — innovative, forward-looking work on scaling, privacy, mining, and more.
The issue for me (and many others) isn’t you as an individual; it’s the structural form of centralization that’s emerged in Bitcoin Core’s development process, combined with the social layer around it: concentrated maintainer power, slow/closed review cycles, and a vibe that sometimes prioritizes certain voices or directions over broad consensus.
I still respect the hell out of your work and cypherpunk roots. Curious if you see any merit in these concerns or ways the process could evolve toward more decentralization without losing security/stability.
No hard feelings either way — just sharing openly.
