BSV: Satoshi’s Vision Or A Bitcoin Parody?
The 2018 civil war in Bitcoin Cash and the hash war between BCH and BSV that followed was the event that marked the year for the entire cryptocurrency domain, during a time when crypto was living its worst moments with prices crashing and morale low.
Between 2017 and 2018, the team that now comprises BSV was part of Bitcoin Cash. Yet, they eventually decided to split due to minor technical differences, despite there being no practical reason for doing so. Additionally, during the split, BSV attempted to deal a major blow to Bitcoin Cash, but BCH proved it was resilient.
In late 2018, the one he shall not be named was sending out massive threats of destroying Bitcoin Cash and halting the network, while bankrupting everyone by utilizing his company’s (nChain) enormous hash power.
Threats that never materialized, as instead BSV lost the hash wars and proceeded with a different path, isolated from their previous peers.
Let’s delve deeper into BSV and discover what the cryptocurrency community thinks about it.
Vitalik Buterin:
“Obviously, BSV Is Like A Complete Scam”
On several occasions, Vitalik expressed his thoughts on BSV and the person with the most influence on this project, Craig Wright.
In 2016, using the signal theory, Vitalik Buterin was among the first members of the cryptocurrency community to point out a weakness in the method used by CSW to demonstrate his identity as Satoshi Nakamoto to Bitcoin developer Gavin Andresen.
In this interview, Vitalik also discussed the 2021 BSV delisting from Binance, which was a decision taken by Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) after the repeated lawsuits against cryptocurrency community members.
Vitalik tweeted about the flaws in the BSV narrative since early on (2018):
In 2018, 128MB was too much indeed, and still, BSV proceeded with a centralized network and Gigabyte blocks that make no sense within the current technological levels.
Moore’s Law was the basis of scaling Bitcoin, and both BTC and BSV disregarded it to their detriment.
Currently, BSV has a 4GB block size limit, and centralized mining (therefore vulnerable and not censorship resistant).
Roger Ver:
“CSW Is A Liar And A Fraud”
Roger Ver has denounced Craig Wright and the previous association which only lasted for one year and publicly called him a liar and a fraud.
Craig Wright has sued Roger Ver for defamation but failed to win his case.
Understandably, right after the 2017 split, Bitcoin Cash needed all the support it could find, and it managed to be extremely competitive against the arch-rival of the Bitcoin brand, Bitcoin BTC.
Yet, the 2018 bear market was devastating and did not spread Bitcoin Cash.
Apparently, the team that rallied behind CSW was not interested in unity but was funded enough to create massive issues in the community and a second civil war had to be fought so early.
It is important to highlight the date of Roger Ver’s Tweet, as CSW was already ordered by a court, judging the Kleiman case, to provide a list of his early Bitcoin addresses (up to 2013).
CSW provided a list containing 16405 addresses, and then this happened:
In 2020, 145 of the addresses CSW claimed ownership signed this message on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Wright had claimed in court his billions in bitcoin were held for him in so-called Tulip Trusts, but that he could not prove his control of the keys due to attorney-client privilege. He has been accused by the judge of “abusing” client-attorney privilege to withhold documents and “obfuscate” proceedings elsewhere in the case.
Last August, the judge also found Wright had argued in bad faith, perjured himself and admitted false evidence.
— Coindesk
More Court Cases
All lawsuits involve the claim that Wright is the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.
Lawsuits are frustrating to deal with. They demand time, patience, and money, even when all the arguments are in favor of the accused.
And apparently, many had to face this unnecessary waste of time.
One example that caused friction and the condemnation of BSV from the entire cryptocurrency community was the case of Twitter user “Hodlonaut” (who won the case). In fact, the court decided that:
“Granath had sufficient factual grounds to claim that Wright had lied and cheated in his attempt to prove that he is Satoshi Nakamoto.”
Plenty more lawsuits applied, against several individuals including Blockstream’s CEO Adam Back, Cobra (anon Bitcoin OG owner of Bitcoin.org), and Peter McCormack.
Peter McCormack:
McCormack said Wright “is not Satoshi” and called him a liar and a fraud.
Peter McCormack was sued for his quote from 2019 during a podcast but recently won the case, and the court also denied an appeal.
Most of the cases were lost or abandoned, however, we all have lost track as appeals and separate disputes also exist in almost every case.
Within this negative landscape for the self-proclaimed inventor of Bitcoin, in 2023 a judge accepted an appeal by CSW in the Kleiman case, but actually what everyone is wondering is how much of this case is even real.
Christen Ager-Hanssen:
“I’m today myself convinced that Dr Craig Wright is NOT Satoshi and I’m persuaded he will lose all his legal battles,”
(Source)
While these tweets are now deleted for apparent reasons, we can still locate the leak discussions between the BSV top associates.
Shortly after resigning, he began leaking a series of screenshots and documents, including the claim that Calvin Ayre had an agreement to earn up to 50% of Satoshi Nakamoto’s bitcoin that Craig Wright professes to own. (Source: Protos)
The Satoshi Account On X.com (formerly Twitter)
In 2023, a dormant X.com account (created in 2018) with the username “Satoshi” was reactivated, which raised suspicions that it might have been controlled by Craig Wright. This account was later suspended.
Of course, we should be skeptical of anything anyone says.
This incident appears to be a botched attempt to create artificial legitimacy, since holding this account only generated a negative impression instead of anything else.
COPA vs Craig Wright
Some of the top cryptocurrency companies like Coinbase, Kraken, and Michael Saylor’s Microstrategy joined forces in a conglomerate to take action against CSW.
The claims:
a) The Defendant (Craig Wright) is not the author of the Bitcoin Whitepaper
b) The defendant is not the owner of the copyright of the Whitepaper
c) The use of the whitepaper by COPA does not infringe copyright owned by Defendant.
Furthermore, the claimants ask the court to restrain CSW from:
a) Claiming he is the author of the whitepaper and owner of the copyright
b) Taking steps which involve him asserting the same.
Tough times for CSW and BSV.
In Conclusion
To be frank, despite my fierce criticism against almost everyone in the BTC community, not a single time I’ve ever felt threatened by anyone.
The laser-eyed crowd is at least upholding some values.
Filing lawsuits for defamation creates a reign of terror in the field, whereas highly influential individuals like Vitalik Buterin have shared similar remarks in the past.
This process can be challenging for the average person, and may not be justified even if there is criticism or personal attacks involved.
Of course, we can’t conduct campaigns of slander on social media, but prominent figures in this field have indeed been identifying deceptive individuals for what they are. Maybe, start by suing those who can handle the heat first.
At the same time, aggressive trolls are unleashed as part of marketing campaigns upon honest researchers employing profanities, ad hominem, personal remarks, and offensive language.
How do you suggest we deal with a situation where multiple parties are suing each other?
I’ve been critical of the BTC community, but never, not even once, did anyone from the BTC community threaten me with lawsuits or any other way, open dox-bounties, or make me feel there was a threat of legal action looming for stating my opinion.
Legal action for no reason generates issues for individuals that require vast amounts of time, energy, and funds to outmaneuver.
However, when some push it too far, karma always hits back like a ton of bricks.
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