Where the panel landed
The panel broadly agreed that Bitcoin itself was the year’s central winner, whether through price recovery, the halving, SegWit, or simple survival. Theo Goodman pushed Rare Pepe and the Dow hacker as the year’s cultural crypto artifacts, while Tone Vays kept returning to Bitcoin-only infrastructure, Bitcoin Core, BitFury, Blockstream, and the failures of altcoin narratives. Gabriel Divine and Jeffrey Jones emphasized the steady work of Andreas Antonopoulos, SegWit developers, and open-source projects as the real substance behind the year’s recovery.
What they were watching
The directional consensus was strongly bullish, with Bitcoin described as back, rising, and moving toward new all-time highs. Gabriel cited roughly “120% gains” for holders, and several panelists framed the price recovery as proof that the bear market had ended. The episode watched Bitcoin’s return more than any single price level.
Biggest Winner Goes To Bitcoin
The panel’s winner category split between Rare Pepe, Unocoin, Bitcoin holders, and Bitcoin itself. The final award went to Bitcoin, with Thomas framing price recovery, SegWit progress, and renewed enthusiasm as signs that the rocket ship was back on the pad.
Ethereum Takes The Loss
Ethereum was the panel’s dominant loser, mainly because of the DAO hack, hard fork, Ethereum Classic split, and repeated technical crises. Gabriel argued that the damage was so severe that Ethereum might not recover, while Thomas treated the rollback as the year’s clearest cautionary tale.
The Halving Works As Designed
Jeffrey chose the halving as the defining moment because it showed code written years earlier executing globally without intervention. The feared miner death spiral did not appear, reinforcing Bitcoin’s monetary schedule as a working social and technical promise.
SegWit Becomes The Technical Milestone
Gabriel chose the 0.13.1 SegWit release as the defining moment because it showed Bitcoin Core solving malleability and scaling conservatively. He emphasized the slow, careful activation path as a feature rather than a defect.
War On Cash Enters The Bitcoin Story
Tone chose the war on cash as the year’s defining trend, pointing to India, Venezuela, Australia, Europe, and Scandinavian cashless plans. He argued that government pressure against physical money might become one of the most important long-term drivers of Bitcoin adoption.
Best Companies Reward Infrastructure
The best-company picks favored infrastructure and use cases: BitFury for responsible mining, BitSquare for decentralized exchange, Nitrogen Sports for actual Bitcoin usage, and Blockstream for protocol work. Thomas chose Coinbase for user access, even as the later categories punished it for surveillance and IRS exposure.
Worst Companies Expose Centralization
The worst-company category hit ViaBTC, Circle, Chainalysis and Elliptic, Bitfinex, and Coinbase. The common thread was centralization: blocking SegWit, dropping Bitcoin, mapping users, getting hacked, or collecting customer data that could later be demanded by the state.
Bitcoiner Of The Year Becomes A Values Test
The Bitcoiner of the Year picks revealed each panelist’s version of Bitcoin’s center: Theo chose the DAO hacker, Gabriel chose Andreas Antonopoulos, Tone chose Adam Back, Jeffrey chose Edward Snowden, and Thomas chose himself. The category became less about one person and more about Bitcoin’s coalition of developers, educators, privacy advocates, trolls, and broadcasters.
Rare Pepe is the winner of 2016 in general.— Theo Goodman
Bitcoin is the winner this year— Jeffrey Jones
Ethereum experienced a series of devastating failures hacks and market slide.— Gabriel Divine
The blockchain word. Let's get rid of it.— Jeffrey Jones
The Dow hacker is a Bitcoiner and the Bitcoiner of 2016.— Theo Goodman
Bitcoin for the win. Bitcoin endures— Thomas Hunt
Story of the Week
Bitcoin Wins The Year In Review
The dominant story was Bitcoin’s survival and return after years of bear-market doubt, scaling conflict, and altcoin distraction. The panel’s awards repeatedly came back to the same conclusion: Bitcoin endured while Ethereum split, R3 disappointed, Coinbase stumbled, Circle retreated, and the war on cash sharpened Bitcoin’s reason to exist. SegWit, the halving, Bitcoin Core, Blockstream, Andreas Antonopoulos, and Bitcoin holders all appeared as parts of the same larger victory. By the end, the year was framed less as a collection of separate stories than as Bitcoin’s reassertion over every supposed replacement.
Bitcoin is the biggest winner of 2016.— Thomas Hunt