3 reasons why SmartBCH will not gain traction

The way things are going, SmartBCH will not gain any serious traction. Below is why.

But first...

What is SmartBCH?

In case you're not familiar with the project, SmartBCH is a BitCoin Cash sidechain and a smart contract platform, similar to Ethereum, BSC, Polygon, etc.

To learn more, please read my detailed article on the chain.

Why SmartBCH will not gain traction

I was moved to write this post by the recent statement the SmartBCH team made in their bailout plan.

The statement was made in regard to the 101,382.3 owned by the SmartBCH users which CoinFlex is holding hostage.

In the article, they said: (slightly paraphrased).

"...In any future crisis, only BCH/sBCH holders can do themselves a favour to bail out themselves..." ~SmartBCH Team.

At this point, I'm almost repeating myself as I've written a similar article before. But here we go.

1. The SmartBCH team is not ready to assume their natural responsibility

The main problem here is not the statement itself but the attitude of the SmartBCH team towards responsibility.

An attitude they've been openly displaying from day one in the name of "decentralisation".

Decentralisation is not a perception game.

You can't just "declare" that a project is decentralised and automatically hand over responsibility to the community.

There're processes and basic requirements to transfer a project from the founding team to the community in order to make it more decentralised.

And even when that happens, the team still play a significant role in contributing to the chain's development.

The SmartBCH team are obsessed with falsely presenting the chain as decentralised even when everything is as centralized as the folders on my laptop.

The only time the SmartBCH team can confidently make the above statement or expect the "community" to take care of themselves is when the chain is fully decentralised.

And even then, the team sounding like they have no major role in the sustainability, success, or failure of the chain is irresponsible and careless.

For example, the Ethereum Foundation or the developers of any chain, cannot say something like...

"...if the chain is hacked or scammed and we lose the coins backing the sidechain tokens, the token holders will find a way to solve their problem".

SmartBCH is like 10 years behind where it needs to be to even think of taking such a stand.

The team has always been leaning towards this idea of "community responsibility" even when the most basic infrastructures are missing.

You can't just create a whole new chain and 'dump' it on "the community" just so you can claim, "it is decentralised".

No! it will not work.

Because in real life, the chain is not independent or even remotely decentralised.

And even if it is, the team hasn't built and nurtured a community that's strong enough to shoulder the responsibility of managing the chain by themselves, especially in a crisis like this.

It's so unthinkable my brain hurts when I imagine it playing out in real life.

2. No concrete plan or resources to grow the chain

The SmartBCH team clearly have no concrete plans or resources to attract developers and users to the chain.

First, the development of the chain itself is painfully slow. For the past year, there've only been about 3 or 4 new feature updates.

Furthermore, the proposed decentralised bridge for the network has been in the concept development stage for over 10 months.

They can't hire and pay more skilled developers to build stuff because they're underfunded. And there's no plan whatsoever for a development fund.

The SmartBCH team are practically doing nothing to attract developers to the chain. Either because they have no idea what they should be doing to make SmartBCH attractive to developers or they don't have the resources to do anything.

Or for some reason(s), they're not willing to and would rather shift the responsibility to "the community".

There are many serious projects out there with good development funds, robust developer tools, strong teams, and an established market presence for serious developers to build on.

SmartBCH has zero marketing, no developer fund, no decentralisation, no strong tech, poor team.

How can you compete favourably this way with other smart contract platforms that are actively making efforts to attract developers, grow their market share, and increase the user base?

And no...

Singing "low fees and fast transactions" alone will not cut it. That's old news because there're existing chains with even lower fees but with almost none of the weaknesses of SmartBCH.

3. No plans to raise the resources required to grow

It's obvious that SmartBCH was created for the primary purpose of pumping BCH. And everything they do has to be aligned with that ultimate interest.

That's not a bad thing in itself though.

However, what does not make sense is that the people behind it are not willing to do the work required to make the chain competitive enough to deliver on this goal.

They either don't have any idea of how to go about it or they're probably busy pointing fingers at themselves about who should do the work, raise the money, etc.

You can easily see it in this attitude of "go build it if you want it" that is being displayed by the developers to the community members.

It's normal to be underfunded.

What's not normal is to have no plan whatsoever to raise sufficient funds for development. Or at least some plans and strategies to achieve your goals with or without funding, and without trying to push responsibility to the community.

Look at this recent statement today

Any serious chain, with a real plan and strategy would have spent more than 250 BCH for its development in one year.

The above shows the SmartBCH team acting like an incompetent politician who's done almost nothing for their community, returning their allocation back to the treasury to appear transparent or honest and garner goodwill.

Which is more important?

Using the money raised to develop the project as intended or sitting on it and then later returning it back to the treasury?

I just don't get it. It's not like the money is so big that 75% will still remain after one full year of building.

This means only two things:

• The team have no development plans to spend the money on.

• They were sitting on it hoping that the price will go up before using it to fund their development plans.

Either way, it's always been one poor judgement after another from the beginning and even now.

Clearly, the SmartBCH team is not serious about business, and they would rather play some mind games and dilly dally on development.

Conclusion

In this post, I have identified 3 reasons why SmartBCH will not gain traction or be competitive in the market.

• The team is not willing to take responsibility or assume their natural role. Even if you want to decentralise operations, it has to be slow and coordinated. Not just pushing things on the community with no solid foundation, infrastructure, self-funding, or governance mechanism to run on.

• They don't have the resources needed to make the chain competitive. No developer fund, no marketing budget, to attract developers and users.

• They don't have a way or any plans to generate the resources needed.

As a result, it will continue to operate haphazardly and not gain any meaningful traction.

I am thoroughly disappointed in the SmartBCH team because they seem to have no idea what they're doing, plan whatsoever, or lack the will to do what's necessary.

Are you happy with the state and progress of SmartBCH? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.