Bitcoin: Divergent Visions and Interests.

I have read a lot of noise during the three months that I have been in the community on the matter of what is the real bitcoin, a debate between the BTC, BCH, BSV, and BCHA supporters.

Just to name the cryptocurrencies derived from the original bitcoin featured in Satoshi Nakamoto's whitepaper.

I think there are quite a few 0's and 1's behind the innumerable posts and comment threads in this regard, which explain, each one from their bastion, the benefits of the perspectives they defend.

As a consequence, there is currently a divided community regarding the problem of scalability and the solution to it: increasing block size versus SegWit (Segregated Witness).

In theory, the blockchain in its original concept aims at community empowerment and decentralized governance by consensus.

However, doing a cursory review on some specialized cryptocurrency portals makes it clear that consensus has not been its strong point.

In the hard forks, instead of implementing the necessary improvements and continuing the path together, other blockchains have originated with divergent views where the interests of some groups seem to prevail.

Interestingly, companies appear abrogating the brand of a good, supposedly collective, in addition to the developer community.

• Bitcoin (2009): Satoshi Nakamoto, Wladimir J. van der Laan, Marco Falke, Pieter Wuille, Gavin Andresen, Jonas Schnell

• Bitcoin Core - BTC (2017): Blockstream

• Bitcoin Cash - BCH (2017): Bitcoin unlimited

• Bitcoin Satoshi Vision - BSV (2018): nChain. Craig Wright and Calvin Ayre

• Bitcoin Cash ABC - BCHA (2020) Amaury Séchet “Deadalnix”.

It is very easy to get carried away by the diatribe and take sides with one of these sides in disputes to carry out the mass adoption of the new currency based on the best experience it provides you.

In the infographic, you will appreciate a comparative political perspective of three of the variants, not including the most recent one (BCHA). You can agree or disagree. It will depend on the level of knowledge and experience, and whatever your position is it is valid for me, while I do my own research.

Source: r/btc

I think the division plays against everyone, and it will probably delay the achievement of the objectives. It sounds romantic, but breaking against the established is at the core of the original project.

Perhaps, the most advisable thing would have been, to remain united and by consensus, to implement the improvements around a central policy. Imagine in the previous image, a single community located in the center avoiding the extremes. Without a doubt, the ideal.

Using Bitcoin outside of exchanges

In the interview that @cryptotexty did with @MarcDeMesel, the interviewee told a great truth. Ordinary people are not very interested in the technical details of a cryptocurrency, they just want to use it without complications in an easy way.

In this sense, the key question is whether I can use bitcoin in the market as a form of payment?

My recent experience in the market.

On Friday afternoon, my wife and I went out to visit my mother-in-law and took her opportunity to buy her the medicines she needs to control her high blood pressure.

I have been listening to my wife for months complaining about the storage of her smartphone, brand of Xiaomi, a Redmi 6A. Social media groups collapse with videos on 1GB of RAM and internal memory. My Smartphone is a Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo Plus from 2014. Excellent, but with so many blows received, the touch has flaws.

So I said, with the tips saved I am going to surprise my dear wife, and incidentally with her smartphone I replace mine. Consequently, I made the transfer of BCH 0.15 to an Electron Cash wallet on my crazy smartphone.

The plan was to surprise my wife by buying it at a store where they accept bitcoin.

I did preliminary research at https://map.bitcoin.com/ based on the area where my wife would buy the medicines. In the area, I saw several green water balloons. Ready, I just had to check if the bitcoin saved on the network. Go from digital to real.

Source: Screenshot of the search for stores in the area

Upon arriving at the sector of the city where the pharmacies are located, my wife hurried and bought the medicines, while I waited for her in the car on one of the main avenues.

Despite the sanitary restrictions and the reduction of traffic, the area does not have enough space to park a vehicle, so it is chosen to leave it at risk on the sidewalks in the care of residents of the place. So at that time, I arranged for someone to take care of the car.

I told my wife, accompany me to the shopping center where there are a lot of technology stores, especially phones and computers to buy a smartphone.

She saw me strangely and together we walked through the corridors. I said, help me locate the BCH sticker in stores. My wife was in a hurry to get to my mother-in-law's house, so, she asked at the first store if they accepted bitcoin.

The clerk answered yes, but she charges a 3% commission. I clarified Bitcoin Cash for her. She hesitated and made a call to confirm with her boss. In the meantime, we told him that we would continue to see the stores.

Many stores and I deduced from the few stores I saw on the map that merchants are still not interested in accepting crypto payments, otherwise I would see stickers everywhere.

We asked another store with a wide variety of products, and the seller told us if they accept bitcoin with a commission of 8% on the value of the product and 24 hours for approval.

My head almost exploded, and again I clarified that I would pay with Bitcoin Cash. He wrinkled his forehead and told us that she would consult with her boss. We waited ten minutes. The seller came back and told us they don't accept BCH.

I felt the look of recrimination from my wife. I tenderly told him to accompany me to the upper level. We climbed the escalator and walked through one of the corridors, we did stop at a store window to appreciate the smartphones on display.

My wife again asked the question if they accept bitcoin cash, the saleswoman smiled and pointed to the counter, there was the sticker.

The saleswoman gave us a brief review of some of the smartphones, and we opted for a brand unknown to us, but whose characteristics met my wife's requirements.

When my wife found out it was for her, she smiled and cast a warm gaze on me. She now owned a Tecno Spark 6 smartphone with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal storage. I hope I don't see her complain again due to a lack of memory on the smartphone.

Source: The photos were taken by me with my old and crazy Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo Plus Duos

At that precise moment, the real Bitcoin for us was Bitcoin Cash. The purchase operation was almost instantaneous. The merchant made the second sale of him after a month in which he was visited by the people of https://panmoni.com/

The payment was for an amount of BCH 0.14792957 in size of 360 bytes at a mining rate of 1 sat / bytes. Yes I know, we are interested in technical data. Well, that was the question the merchant asked me. He wanted to know how much the commission was. Consequently, I had to reply to him.

His wallet was Bitcoin.com, I asked him why he used it, and he answered because he can trade with it.

Closing thoughts

How do I know what the real Bitcoin is?

Without a doubt, the real bitcoin will be the one that you can use on a daily basis. In my case, I already try to incorporate it into my routine without having to change it to the fiat currency of my country.

I have made three successful exchanges where I paid directly with BCH, and that makes me happy. Also, I see that it is not enough to incorporate merchants, it takes enough money flow, if buyers do not have BCH it will be very difficult to convince most merchants to accept payments.

It is necessary for companies to pay salaries in BCH, and for now, it only occurs to me that it will have to be in the digital labor market. Only in this way will it be able to cross the barrier into other more tangible areas in the near future.

In one of the main shopping centers specialized in technology in the capital of my country, the presence of BCH has not yet been felt. Nonetheless, it still takes the lead over the other Bitcoin variants for mass adoption.

If you ask me what the real bitcoin is, my experience tells me that it is Bitcoin Cash.

An original article by @Jnavedan