Clearing the Way for Cooperation

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4 years ago

There is a misunderstanding between Roger Ver and myself, which takes the form of a specific issue, but is also part of an ongoing communication problem. By writing this, I hope we can improve this situation. Even a minor improvement here would be of value.

One of the main roadblocks looks on the surface like it is related to personality clashes. The feedback I have gotten from others is that I am “attacking Roger and Bitcoin.com on social media”.

So before going further, I should say that it is not my intention to attack or badmouth Roger or his company. I’m sure it looks to some people that I have been doing exactly that, but this is part of the misunderstanding. The reason I give Roger flak, and focus on what he says, is because I recognize that he is a valuable part of our community, and what he says matters.

Following the wisdom of “seek first to understand, then to be understood”, I can understand how I can appear to others.  People do sometimes find me hard to work with. I’ve been called “unpleasant” and “abrasive”. I have my challenges with communication. If it helps, I apologize to Roger if I’ve rubbed him the wrong way.

The Missing $500,000

Roger, you recently made a Reddit comment saying “I've donated / paid about $500K to ABC over the last few years”.  I challenged the accuracy of this number in the same thread (I don’t believe we’ve received anywhere near that sum). You haven’t made any response to this, other than a private communication that it was being looked into.

Perhaps from Roger’s perspective, it appears that this is just another ungrateful, nitpicking complaint from me, and that I’m harassing him over financial details and wasting his time. Or, even worse, that I’m getting money from him while also bad mouthing him for it, complaining over and over, and having a bad attitude.

But, it is only fair to hear my side of things as well. Even if this number is inaccurate, some may wonder why I am harping on this point and refusing to let go of the issue.

My Side of the Story

I’m not going to write a long essay here, let’s just go right to it: Roger also made a comment recently that “ABC was dragging its feet” when it comes to development. In isolation, neither this comment, nor the $500k comment is accurate, but together they paint an especially bad and unjust narrative about Bitcoin ABC.

If I have to spell it out, there is a narrative being created here that essentially says “Bitcoin ABC has been given plenty of money and they’re not doing the work”.  You can use your imagination to figure out what the implications of this false narrative are, and what this might lead to.

In general, narratives can destroy a community and we saw that happen before in Bitcoin Cash.  And again, help with the legal bills is appreciated, but doesn’t impact the speed of developing code.

Battling misleading narratives makes it hard for me to do my job, both in terms of management and logistics, and also it is very demotivating, and a huge drain of time and energy.  Misinformation is poisonous , and this is why it is so important to rectify it.

Also, it is unfair to expect me not to defend my position in public when this kind of narrative is being allowed to go out there unchallenged due to the fact  that Roger did not retract his statement about the amount of money. So, while it may seem like I am “attacking” by bringing up this point, I feel that I am being attacked and forced to defend myself as long as it isn’t corrected.

What is the Larger Issue Here?

Yes, there is a communication problem but there's something else too.  This may be a touchy subject, but in my view, Roger has repeatedly amplified people who push a message of "ABC is bad; they are Core 2.0, etc". I won't name names here as that wouldn't be productive, but I can assure you that I am not alone in this opinion.

There has been pervasive gaslighting (bordering on abuse) against ABC that has been allowed to go on for years, ever since Bitcoin Cash was created. The $500k issue is relevant to this pattern as now it is Roger himself who is either knowingly or unknowingly creating a similar narrative.

Maybe my own communication style over the years has provoked that response in Roger to a degree, and has helped start this negative cycle, so I will accept my part of the blame in that, but I think this cycle needs to stop.

I don’t know how to fix all the interpersonal issues in our community. It's true I don’t always have the best attitude, but communication is always a two-way street.

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4 years ago

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Reconciliation and moving forward.

/subscribe

$ 0.00
4 years ago

You are both right in your own way of looking at the issue. You are also both hypersensitive to each other's opinion and for good reasons. You are also both working towards the same identical goal: make permissionless p2p cash pervasive. The vast majority of people in the bitcoin cash community (99%) have no clue that you guys misunderstand each other over social media (which is a terrible easy to interact, let's face it). So now, please, would each of you put a bit of water in your wine (French saying to ask for more tolerance from each other)? The world needs both of you to hold each other in high respect (and you both do in fact)! Cheers!

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I really liked that you have apologized but let us remember that you have been attacking Roger for very long time on Bchgang channel. someone have collected some of your recent destructive comments in this channel https://t.me/CryptoToxi hope you continue the good attitude to erase the past

Hope you stop attacking BU and try to work with them even if you don't agree with them on their goals

$ 0.00
4 years ago

wow, I looked through the channel and I think it is absolute garbage. Please add this post to th channel, too.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

"... help with the legal bills is appreciated, but doesn’t impact the speed of developing code."

IMO, If you are saying you need more money to be able to do the developing work, then any financial support should help with that issue. Funds saved by not having to hire your own defense are funds you can put towards developing. Plus the time saved finding good counsel may help a bit.

Regardless of whether you agree with my belief, if Roger believes something along those lines, then his claim he donated that 200K to ABC is an honest claim. If you do not think that part counts as ABC support, that is also an honest belief. Trying to get either of you to "take back" your statements based on your honest beliefs seems unnecessary since we all see what happened to the 200K and we do not need to force either of you to agree to the other's belief.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

this assumes that the funding he is asking is meant for himself and not for other or additional ABC devs. I think you will find he is asking for the latter. Hence the money towards lawyers does not contribute towards more development happening in ABC even if the help for those that were targeted by the lawsuit is clearly appreciated.

$ 0.05
4 years ago

Fair point. Yes, I agree there are valid arguments that the 200K should not be counted by those who received it. I just think it is also fair for Roger to believe it does count as him supporting 'ABC developers' or whatever it was he said.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

👍👍

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I think the claim that Roger's 500K claim creates a "Bitcoin ABC has been given plenty of money" narrative is unfair. I am assuming he made that claim in the context of people questioning why he does not provide more support to ABC. I do not think him saying he has provided 300-500k over some years is the same as saying that ABC has been given "plenty of money" for developing. I doubt that is what Roger meant when he said that. I bet almost every BCH supporter agrees ABC needs more financial support.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

A small proposal for sustained funding of development. Bitcoin.com could change their wallet to have a second fee equal to the transaction fee. The user sets which codebase he or she chooses to support along with an option of none. Bitcoin.com could set ABC as the default option to indicate support for ABC's vision of peer-to-peer electronic cash. If, at some point in the future, ABC strays from peer-to-peer electronic cash, bitcoin.com could change the default.

$ 0.01
4 years ago