Bitcoin/.com is already pro-Bcash and anti-Bitcoin for a while, but last week they managed to really piss off the Bitcoin community. As you can read here, they listed BCH as Bitcoin and BTC as Bitcoin Core, suggesting that Bcash is the real Bitcoin and BTC is an altcoin.
The confusion this is causing will lead to several issues, all of them will hold back adoption of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency overal. Firstly, many people new to crypto will be distracted when they are not even able to figure out what is the real Bitcoin is to begin with. These people could stop their investigation on crypto and stay with the easy to understand stocks and other legacy investments.
Also, people who intent to buy BTC could end up with Bcash because of the misinformation they received from Bitcoin/.com. This could make them miss out on the biggest thing ever and leave them with frustration about crypto. Also the risk is real that someone sends Bcash to a Bitcoin address and will never be able to recover his funds. Beside this, the media will use this to bash the confusing cryptocurrency space and damage the reputation of Bitcoin by focussing on the manipulation and childish fights.
After the screenshot of the listings went viral, the Bitcoin community reacted furious. Heated discussions took place in social media, it really became ugly. A part of the community started to fundraise money to start a lawsuit. Although I hate Bcash and would really enjoy it to see Bitcoin/.com suffer, I think a lawsuit is not a good idea and I will not support it.
http://bitcoinist.com/bitcoin-lawsuit-bitcoin-com-ceo-roger-ver/
I don’t think that the government should be involved
Bitcoin drives fully on free market forces and is independent of the government and the banking system, this is the main reason I fell in love with it. Bitcoin is designed to make us less dependent on governments, so I was very surprised when I saw some Bitcoiners cry for help from the government to solve their problem with Bitcoin/.com. We finally have a super resilient system that has proven to resolve everything several times, and now we need the government to help it?
Beside the fact that it is against the principles of Bitcoin, it can be harmful too. Governments f*ck up everything, so I don't want them to be the new owner of the domain name Bitcoin/.com when it get seized. Also, a huge fine that forces Bitcoin/.com to cash out a big amount of crypto could harm the market.
I am really afraid that involvement of the government will make it worse as happened with the Mt. Gox case. Everyone able to think with common sense would say that the victims should get their lost Bitcoins back, but the government decided that it had to be done in fiat. The result was that the victims only got 400 USD per lost Bitcoin and a huge market crash because the trustee cashed out in an unprofessional way.
Think about it: First crypto will be cashed out into fiat to pay the lawsuit and these funds will ends up in the hands of bureaucrats, whereafter a huge amount of crypto will be cashed out in fiat to pay the fines and will end up in the hand of the government. Then governments will push for more regulation because people in the crypto space can’t behave themselves. Do we want that as crypto community?
Use the money to build something useful instead of giving it to bureaucrats in a lawsuit I would say!
A lawsuit could have opposite effect if it fails
It is far from sure that the lawsuit will be effective. The Bitcoin name is never patented, so calling
Bcash Bitcoin is not illegal. Only when people really lost money because of misinformation they will be able to claim it on Bitcoin/.com and the lawsuit will be effective, but this is not guaranteed.
When the lawsuit fails, people could think that it is because Bcash is Bitcoin and the effect will be counterproductive. What if headlines in mainstream media are telling that it was right to call BCH Bitcoin?
Bcashers could use it to victimize themselves
I am very sure that in case of a penalty for Bitcoin/.com the entire Bcash community will victimize themselves and cry about how the Bitcoin community is working together with the governments to destroy BCH. They will come up with even more conspiracy theories and tell each other and newbies how strong Bcash is because the ‘Core’ side can’t win without the government.
So what should we do?
I think the market should sort it out, but that doesn't mean that we don't need to do anything. Let them hear your voice and beat them with proper arguments, build competing features on top of BTC when you are a coder, Let Google know that a high ranking website (Bitcoin/.com) is serving their customers misinformation and report the Bitcoin/.com wallet in the app store for being misleading.
The best cryptocurrency will eventually win and that is Bitcoin (BTC). Bcash proponents have to pump and advertise their coin all the time to gain some momentum, while a good product like BTC will sell itself. As you can see on Twitter, the reputation of Roger and friends is sinking fast, so it will cost them more effort and money to pump Bcash every pump. Eventually the true innovation will win, also this time Bitcoin will prove it’s resilience!
Disclaimer
This is no financial advice, just my view on the market.
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