On October 17, Bitcoin.com released a controversial statement which claimed that Bitcoin Cash is Bitcoin. In response, leading industry experts including Litecoin creator Charlie Lee offered harsh criticism.
Bitcoin.com Claims Bitcoin Cash is Bitcoin, Angers Bitcoin Community
In September, Bitcoin Cash was launched through a hard fork executed by a few major mining pools including ViaBTC and Bitmain. Since then, the support and demand for Bitcoin Cash have significantly decreased, which is evident in the hash rate and market cap of the cryptocurrency.
At the time, even Bitmain, which first introduced Bitcoin Cash in July as Bitcoin ABC, was caught off guard with the statement of ViaBTC to pursue the hard fork in September. But, within the past two months, Bitcoin Cash has not been able to come close to the original Bitcoin blockchain by any indicator, such as user base, hashrate, market cap, and developer activity.
Still, this week, Bitcoin.com released a controverisal statement that read:
“Based on the above comparisons between the various versions of Bitcoin, the whitepaper, and the years of common understanding that Bitcoin was always meant to be an electronic cash system, it is the position of this website that Bitcoin Cash is the version of Bitcoin that most closely adheres to the original design. The position that Bitcoin Cash is Bitcoin is based on its adherence to the design goals and intended purpose that Bitcoin was created to fulfill.”
Industry Experts Respond, Charlie Lee Offers Criticsm
Earlier this month, some of the largest Bitcoin wallet platforms and exchanges including Coinbase and Bitfinex have announced that the upcoming SegWit2x hard fork in November will not be considered as “Bitcoin” or “BTC” even if it surpasses Bitcoin in terms of hash rate. If 75 percent of miners do pursue the SegWit2x hard fork in November, there is a very high probability that SegWit2x launches with higher hash rate than Bitcoin. But, there is also a high probability that miners switch back to Bitcoin upon its first difficulty adjustment, if the demand from the market, users, and investors is not met.
So far, Bitcoin Cash has not even come close to contention with Bitcoin in any of those indicators. As such, Litecoin creator Lee stated:
“A lot of newcomers are going to be misled by Bitcoin.com . This article is so full of lies and FUD. Not having replace-by-fee does not make unconfirmed transactions safe. Also confirmed transactions are irreversible even with SegWit. SegWit signatures are not removed from the transactions. It’s just the transaction data structure that’s different. It’s just as secure. More Pretty much every other line in that article is FUD and misleading. It’s very much a hit piece on Bitcoin Core and SegWit. Shame.”
As Lee explained above, Bitcoin Cash is not Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the original Bitcoin blockchain which is currently known as “Bitcoin” and “BTC.” Even after SegWit2x debuts in November, there is a higher probability of the current version of Bitcoin remaining as the majority chain, as miners do not decide the value and market cap Bitcoin, users and investors do.
Lee further emphasized that the end result is not important. It is not morally and ethically correct to deliberately confuse newcomers in the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets.
“It’s not about who wins. Confusing newcomers to bitcoin is not good,” he said.