It has become a habit of mine to watch Theta.tv instead of the traditional television programs or Youtube videos.
I am subscribed to the JustWeirdTV Channel where the host, Matt, who has the hippie looks with his long straight hair and body tattoos, entertains viewers by doing random stuff like singing while playing his guitar, playing games, eating random stuff and just simply talking and engaging with his viewers.
During that one episode, he invited his viewers to follow him on his Twetch account. If you don't know what Twetch is, it is a social media application built in a blockchain. It is like Twitter but with tipping system using Bitcoin Satoshi's Vision (BSV) so in a sense, Twetch is a direct competitor of Noise.cash which uses Bitcoin Cash as the currency for micro tips. I have also an account there but I won't be making a comparison between Twetch and Noise.cash here, that one is reserved for another blog.
Having fallen in love with Noise.cash, I was not able to hold my fingers from communicating with Matt using the live chat and introducing to him Noise.cash. Seeing that he already owns a Twetch account, I did not have difficulty explaining Noise.cash to him.
We, Matt and I, were in the middle of chat conversation when another viewer gave a comment in the chat box that Bitcoin Cash is "shitcoin cash". I told him that there is no need to bad mouth another crypto just to promote their own favorite coin. At that point, I was still clueless about the crypto he is promoting. I thought he's another Bitcoin Core believer but it turned out that he's completely from another Bitcoin camp.
I am trying to recall our online debate from memory so I might have missed some details in his arguments. However, I am pretty much certain about the overall structure of the arguments that he threw against Bitcoin Cash because I immediately made a post in Noise.cash about this, as a way of documenting what happened.
It was just unfortunate that I was only able to screen shot only a portion of our debate. I accidentally closed the tab, when my Mom called me for breakfast. It would have been more informative for the readers if the entire conversation have been capture by me.
But the Theta.tv runs in a blockchain, right? If this is the case, then our conversation is permanently recorded in the blockchain. The effort though to retrieve that conversation is not worth it.
So lesson learned, if you are going to debate online, make sure you screen shot the chat conversations.
Round 1: Is Craig Wright Satoshi Nakamoto?
Going back to the "online debate", he continued that the court will soon issue a ruling or a judgment that BSV is the real Bitcoin or Craig Wright has a legal right to the name Bitcoin. I have read something about this BSV and Craig Wright's claim to BTC name during initial 5 months of my self-learning about this rabbit hole we call "cryptoverse".
I told him, recalling what I've read, many experts in the crypto industry do not believe that Craig Wright is Mr. Satoshi Nakamoto. I was not able to expound this argument due to the limitation of the chat box. As I now have more time to recall what I read before, I remember a lot of experts doubted the extraordinary claims of Mr. Wright because these require extra ordinary proof such as:
an evidence showing he controls early bitcoins mined by Satoshi Nakamoto
ability to control or access Nakamoto's accounts in online forums
computer file showing early versions or even draft copy of Bitcoin Whitepaper that pre-dates the publishing of the original paper
Even before this debate, I also saw a Youtube video where Mr. Wright denies that he is the original developer of Bitcoin only to make a contrary claim in another video. In this video, a member of the audience is accusing him just that.
Round 2: Which Bitcoin is faithful to the Bitcoin White Paper?
Another point where we had disagreement was which one is more faithful to the Bitcoin White Paper. I said that Bitcoin Cash was forked from Bitcoin Core and thus, have the characteristics of BTC. I admit I haven't really read the Bitcoin White Paper but what I offered as proof of this is the website of whybitcoincash.com of Kimdotcom because I remember there is a comparison there between Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Core. I said Bitcoin Cash is similar to Bitcoin with some adjustment.
Matt also checked the website and showed it for his viewers to see. I was smiling while Matt was scrolling down his mouse because it was 3-minute free advertisement for Bitcoin Cash. He liked the website because it was simple and clearly communicated the difference between Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Core.
The BSV guy told Matt to see a certain website which contains a side by side comparison on the technical aspects of Bitcoin Core, Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV. Matt looked at it but he was not impressed as he didn't know what those number meant to him. I was also able to see it and I can tell you that it was unattractive and appears to be made by someone using WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) website builder. So I took it as a marketing victory for Bitcoin Cash. (Again, I apologize that I forgot the website referred to, so that you, my Dear reader, could make your own assessment. I will try to look for it and give you updates.)
At this point, Matt is no longer the moderator of the online debate, he's also becoming the judge of this intellectual discourse of ours. But you can see that he's also playing safe. Maybe, he doesn't want to take side.
The next argument the BSV guy threw that really confused me was his claim that BSV is following the original BTC but uses new protocol. I really never had the opportunity to ask him what is the new protocol he was referring because the chat box was also being flooded by other user comments.
Knowing that my knowledge on the White Paper is limited, I deflected this by turning the the table around, and pointed that he is obfuscating his arguments. Weakening the opposition's argument is a classic strategy in debate. You do this by pointing inconsistencies in his arguments. How can he say that BSV is following BTC when it is using a new protocol?
It was at this moment that I realize the need to screen shot our conversation.
Round 3: Which has more adoption, BCH or BSV?
The website which I cannot recall, has a data on the transactions of Bitcoin SV in comparison to Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Core. Since data in blockchain is immutable and transparent, there are other websites that have data as well so I checked them out as I write this Round 3.
From bitinfocharts.com, I found the transaction data. The BSV guy was correct, the transactions of BSV was astronomically more numerous than even the combined BTC and BCH transactions from 2018 to present. Even with the humongous transactions, I told him that in my part of the world nobody uses BSV. The coins.ph which is the most used platform for buying and selling crypto in the Philippines only list 4 crypto assets: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and XRP.
It could be possible that BSV is being used in other parts of the world. That certainly is could be the case. But I pointed out that Paypal does not even accept BSV. If there is a BSV demand, Paypal would surely add it but this was not so. I also checked other payment sites like Bitpay and Payeer, they are not also accepting BSV. This discovery created some cognitive dissonance about this transaction data. The curious me created suspicion about this transactions. If BSV is not generally used for commercial transactions, maybe they are artificial. I don't have enough evidence though to support my claim.
Round 4: Crypto purist vs Crypto pragmatist
My use of Paypal as argument to point out that Bitcoin Cash is more widely adopted than Bitcoin SV did not well with the BSV guy. He scorned my argument and said that I do not know anything about crypto. He reminded me of the crypto mantra of "Not your keys, not your crypto."
I understood completely what he was implying even without him saying it; Paypal and other centralized exchanges are anathema to the peer-to-peer nature of crypto currency because in these platforms users do not own their keys.
I replied that I don't buy this Dogma. I am pragmatic not a crypto purist, if centralized exchanges, help me attain financial freedom, I'd be happy to keep my coin there.
I had a chance to elaborate this stance of my with respect to keys when I made a post in Noise.cash with my encounter with the BSV guy. I posted that without centralized exchanges I would not be able to invest substantially in crypto. My substantial purchase of Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and XRP occurred in coins.ph which is a centralized exchange. Additional investments were made in NEXO, Binance and Moonpay, again all centralized exchange. Without these exchanges, where would I get crypto?
Closing thoughts
This was my first time to engage in a very passionate debate about my favorite crypto currency. I realized that I am not well-versed with the technical and even the legal aspects of Bitcoin and its subsequent forking. I expect that this won't be the last time, I will be drawn in this kind of discussion. So my takeaway lesson from this experience is to read more about BCH because only with knowledge can I truly defend what I love.
References
It doesn't matter what you argue about. It's just a matter of time. but in terms of the economy, the more assets the better.