Hot-headed crypto commentator Shinobi joins Bitcoin Magazine

The vocal, polarizing, and unapologetically Bitcoin-only researcher and journalist Shinobi has joined Bitcoin Magazine as its new technical editor. Following his promotion, CEO David Bailey praised Shinobi’s work as a technical advisor for Peter McCormack’s podcast What Bitcoin Did.

Shinobi, who has previously received a grant from Jack Mallers’ Strike for Bitcoin research, says he’ll push for more content on technical Bitcoin topics, as well as debates so that readers can make more informed decisions.

He acknowledged that he’s engaged in many social media arguments over controversial topics and moved to reassure readers that his opinions won’t trump multi-editor decision-making at Bitcoin Magazine.

Recently, Shinobi published an article criticizing the fee structure in Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 300, Paul Sztorc’s blind-merged mining protocol for Drivechain. He claims the piece considered changes to Bitcoin in general, though it certainly focused on how Drivechain would alter incentive structures.

Now, Shinobi claims that ‘Deater’ (a boyish character from the early years of Bitcoin Twitter whose fame mostly ended after losing a debate with American Hodl) misrepresented his article to imply that he supports Drivechain.

Read more: Shinobi proposes zero-knowledge proofs on Bitcoin

Shinobi is always arguing about Bitcoin

Shinobi is certainly a critic. He was early to doubt the potential of Nostr, which many Bitcoiners — including Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey — proudly endorsed as a viable alternative to social media. Specifically, Shinobi suggested that Nostr should focus on creating a peer-to-peer data layer instead of nebulously reinventing social media.

Shinobi is also irreverent. He frequently hurls insults and condescending comments about people who ask repetitive questions. Often, he refuses to clarify his comments during his frequent X (formerly Twitter) Spaces appearances and has accused his opponents of astroturfing.

Like him or not, Shinobi has studied Bitcoin’s history. He debunked a claim that Ordinals-based Inscriptions were the first time tokens had been issued on the Bitcoin blockchain. He cited NFTs like Rare Pepes as an early example of tokens on Bitcoin, not to mention other examples like Counterparty (XCP), Omni layer Tether (USDT), or Mastercoin (MSC).

Bitcoin Magazine says Shinobi’s research often focuses on self-sovereignty or privacy protocols like the open source CoinJoin. He often writes about ways that Bitcoin can become more private and fungible to encourage greater adoption. 

He can also be pedantic at times. For example, he complained that coin mixers are useless if they don’t consistently attract sufficient numbers of users such that coins from multiple transactions can be effectively tumbled. He discussed fine details of CoinJoining as well as the distinct approaches of JoinMarket versus ZeroLink.

For years, Shinobi has written detailed and often opinionated discussions about topics affecting Bitcoiners. Now, he is advancing beyond guest posting and joining Bitcoin Magazine as a technical editor. Despite his no-nonsense and confrontational attitude, he promises to consider pieces that spark a discussion at Bitcoin’s oldest magazine — even if he disagrees or argued with the author in the past.

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