Craig Wright, the controversial Australian programmer at the head of the imminent creation of a new cryptocurrency, has threatened to crash the price of Bitcoin.
He added a clip of a building demolition for good effect.
To all BTC miners...
If you switch to mine BCH, we may need to fund this with BTC, if we do, we sell for USD and, well... we think BTC market has no room... it tanks. Think about it. We will sell A Lot! Consider that.... And, have a nice day (BTC to 1000 does not phase me) pic.twitter.com/oUScEahtWc — Dr Craig S Wright (@ProfFaustus) November 14, 2018
The cryptocurrency market did in fact crash yesterday, bringing Bitcoin to its lowest price since November 2017. Bitcoin Cash, the cryptocurrency which Wright promotes, suffered almost as much though.
Source: coinmarketcap.com
Many are attributing this crash to an upcoming split in the Bitcoin Cash Blockchain which Wright is intimately connected with. Mati Greenspan, an analyst at eToro, said: “This Bitcoin Cash hard fork has been something of a soap opera. Fun as it’s been to watch, many people will breathe a sigh of relief once the credits roll and the conflict comes to an end."
Soap Opera
Wright is leading the birth of 'Bitcoin Satoshi Vision', a catchily-named spin-off of Bitcoin Cash which he claims will fulfil Satoshi Nakamoto 's....vision. Wright began this affair because he does not agree with the specifications of an upcoming upgrade being applied to Bitcoin Cash by its main development team (ABC).
Finance Magnates has covered the technical differences between Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Satoshi Vision in the past; what is relevant here is the animosity between the two sides. Bitcoin Cash is itself a spin-off of Bitcoin, and public proponents of the former have been known to display animosity towards the latter, claiming that Bitcoin Cash is the true Bitcoin because it more closely follows the original white paper.
In this sense, history is repeating itself. Different parties have declared for Bitcoin SV or Bitcoin Cash. The two biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world (Binance and OKEx) have taken opposing sides, while others are supporting both.
Roger Ver, CEO of a Bitcoin Cash-advocacy website confusingly called Bitcoin.com, recently decided to go with Bitcoin ABC. In response, Wright sent him this email:
Source: bitcoin.com
If you were wondering about the line "I AM Satoshi", this is not a psychotic break, regardless of how it may read. Wright actually claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto in 2016. Not many were convinced, despite the fact that Wright once proved to a crowd that he has a wheelbarrow of academic achievements by bringing his academic achievements onto the stage in an actual wheelbarrow.
One thing that can definitely be said about Wright is that he takes this whole thing rather personally.
Oh. And @JihanWu and @rogerkver selling... they will also have to sell BTC to pay rented hash.
If this is a long war... expect 2014 prices in BTC... think what that does... Have a nice day — Dr Craig S Wright (@ProfFaustus) November 14, 2018
In the following video, Ver seems shocked and upset by the Australian's swearing.
Funnily enough, Ver has not been averse to the odd meltdown in the past when confronted with someone who disagrees with his vision of Satoshi's vision.
Who Will Prevail?
Time will tell. According to Coin Dance, Bitcoin SV is attracting a large majority of hash power at the moment:
Source: cash.coin.dance/blocks
On the other hand, Bitcoin Cash ABC has considerably more users:
Source: cash.coin.dance/nodes
BitMEX head of research Jonathan Bier told Bloomberg: "The chain will split in two, but the economy will support ABC and reject SV (Satoshi’s Vision)." The former does seem to have the support of bigger businesses - Bitpay, Coinbase, Binance, and Bitmain, for example.
The BCH community should NOT compromise with Craig Wright to "avoid a split" and should embrace it as an opportunity to conclusively ostracize and reject him. Bitcoin Craig (BCC) can go take the ticker symbol from the now-defunct cryptocurrency to which it is a fitting successor.
— Vitalik Non-giver of Ether (@VitalikButerin) August 22, 2018
Either way, market commentators seem agreed that the market crash will prove short-lived. Nigel Green, CEO of deVere, told Forbes: "The sudden drop in the value of bitcoin will have caught many investors off guard–even though history teaches us that this is likely to be temporary, with prices rebounding again fairly quickly,"
Said Greenspan: “One thing to look out for is a potential switch by some Bitcoin miners who might look to support one of the new Bitcoin Cash projects. Even if this happens, Bitcoin will most likely still have more than enough hash power to maintain the security of the network. Amid this saga, the hard fork may also drive a number of investors away from Bitcoin Cash altogether, into the arms of its parent asset, Bitcoin. We can only hope for a swift resolution to the drama.”
