Keeping up with all the developments in Cryptocurrencies can seem daunting even for those who are following daily. For everyone else it is almost impossible. The drama unfolding within the Bitcoin Cash community and it’s Hard fork will bemuse, confuse and ultimately worry many, myself included.
Heavy weights are flexing and slinging abuse and threats, with Craig Wright leading the assault. This article is about giving you a basic overview of the players involved and what their positions are, and maybe further, some of your own thinking about what Bitcoin really is.
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Are Hard Forks good or bad?
Hard Forks are a part of Cryptocurrency. Bitcoin Cash is a hard fork of Bitcoin and now it has it’s own hard fork coming up. Are Hard forks a good or a bad thing? Much of what makes Bitcoin special is the fact it is decentralized, not run by a central entity. Hard forks enable people with a different vision for a project to hard fork it and follow their vision for a coin. This can create real confusion, especially for the wider public, but for me it will ultimately produce options and the market will decide what is the best solution available.
To give this article context I will briefly explain my position on Bitcoin/Crypto. Firstly I see Bitcoin as different to 80% of Cryptocurrencies in that Bitcoin is real, the rest are a mixture of scams and ideas which do not offer much that is ground breaking technology.
I have been attracted to the space by the debate. Highly intelligent people are looking at new ways we can structure value exchange and therefor our culture. I see this as a huge experiment driven by a clear understanding by the people running this experiment that we are using a broken system at present and we need to explore new options. That is what is going on here and this current hard fork drama is just another debate, an important one. It is going public in a somewhat nasty way but everyone will benefit by getting involved and understanding what it is at its core. Having meet core developers involved with Bitcoin cash I know there are some incredibly talented people with strong moral fiber involved. I hope they guide this project through a tough period.
Roger Ver vs Craig Wright, two different ideologies clash
Roger Ver is a central figure in Bitcoin and Crypto in general, and is arguably one of the key power brokers, with many calling him Bitcoin Jesus, often sarcastically. Personally I like Roger Ver. I think he has the best intentions for Crypto as a concept, a culture, if you will. It is important to remember that he is involved in many projects, some of which are direct competitors to Bitcoin Cash. He maintains a running battle with some of the thought leaders in the Bitcoin space and often can come across as a bully. In the current clash, Craig Wright is certainly playing the role of the bully though. Lets start with an alleged email sent from Craig Wright to Roger Ver.
Craig Wright is known to many as the man who claims to be Satoshi. As someone who lives and breathes this space I’ve seen him often ridiculed by the Bitcoin community and I guess I went along with the’ who the hell does he think he is’ rhetoric. So who is he? Craig Steven Wright is an Australian computer scientist and businessman. He has publicly identified himself as the main part of the team that created Bitcoin, and has claimed he is the identity behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Wright has many interests in the space including a company called nChain and he states his interests account for 50% of the business of heavyweight Bitpay. He appears to have a huge amount of power, hash power more specifically. He has threatened to bankrupt two of the most powerful players in Crypto, Roger Ver and Jihan Wu, people most would have thought were his partners at Bitcoin Cash. Wright sees the planned Bitcoin Cash hard fork as something that would make Bitcoin Cash illegal. It must be remembered that he sees Bitcoin Cash as the original version of Bitcoin, essentially it is Bitcoin to him, and that he started Bitcoin no less.
Got Hash? You got the power.
Craig Wright claims he and his partners will hold the majority of hash power or effectively the ability to control the Bitcoin cash network. He says he will destroy the Bitcoin cash ABC fork with his hash power. Jihan Wu runs Bitmain, the largest producer of Bitcoin miners and is essentially the main adversary here with Ver supporting him and the Bitcoin ABC team. We will look more at Jihan and Bitmain in another article as I think a good starting point is to stay with the hardforking drama between Craig and Roger. For me it is two different ideologies clashing. I might be wrong but my take is that Roger Ver sees the upcoming Bitcoin Cash hard fork as offering more privacy and anonymity to users, a more libertarian coin if you will . He is a big time libertarian or more correctly voluntarist, and often uses his public platform to trumpet many of societies injustices, something I admire. Craig Wright sees the proposed changes as a death nail to mainstream adoption due to the fact it would make its use illegal in his view. This seems to be at the heart of the escalating clash. Part of the beauty of this space is that it is a real battle of ideas, BIG ideas, and we should embrace these battles and enter the debate.
As someone involved in the Bitcoin OTC (over the counter) trade, I am seeing huge institutional plays taking place. Traditional finance sees Bitcoin as a cheap asset in my opinion and clearly big moves are taking place right now purchasing much of it . This contentious hard fork may worry many in traditional markets, that is yet to be seen.
The challenge of the Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork
Bitcoin is not used to buy coffee and may never be. It may well end up being digital gold. I think it has passed tipping point in the eyes of the big players and already is hence that have entered the market. Bitcoin Cash however faces its first big challenge. It is different things to different people in that camp and we watch with interest as this debate or scrap play outs. I certainly see both sides points, but the main point is for you, the reader, to start a journey of involvement. These communities are still small, approachable and there is a place for you and your voice, get involved. We are shaping the future of money, this is very important!
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