Despite a public invitation to return to the Bitcoin community, early Bitcoin investor Roger Ver is sticking with Bitcoin Cash (BCH)—and says layer-2 blockchains are off the mark.
Blockstream CEO and early Bitcoin developer Adam Back extended an olive branch to Ver after the latter’s book was published. In “Hijacking Bitcoin: The Hidden History of BTC,” Ver asserts that the original vision of Bitcoin has been corrupted. Ver spoke with Decrypt about the current state of Bitcoin Cash and his response to Back—and he's not going back.
“The software development has been captured by a small group of insiders who completely inverted the original design,” he told Decrypt.
The layer-2 debate embodies a philosophical divide between BTC and BCH. Bitcoiners believe that L2 solutions help the chain scale, whereas BCH enthusiasts believe those so-called solutions are centralized solutions to problems that can be better solved by incorporating bigger blocks into the original network. On the other hand, bigger blocks are disliked by small miners, as they require more power and lead to more corporate interests in the space.
Both sides claim to support the original vision of Bitcoin, meanwhile, as laid out by pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto.
In his invitation, Beck urged Ver to give L2s a chance. Ver remained skeptical.
“These 'second layers' are either centralized systems or they don’t work reliably,” Ver told Decrypt, “This is especially true for Adam Back's Liquid Network, on which his company takes every single transaction fee.”
Despite the evolution of the cryptocurrency market since the Bitcoin Cash fork in 2017, Ver maintains that “BCH remains the truest representation of Satoshi’s vision.”
Beyond the monetary aspect, Roger Ver seems to see himself as an orthodox when it comes to following Satoshi’s guidelines. This has also been the case for those behind Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision (BSV), in turn a BCH fork promoted by Craig Wright that also claims to be the only one following Nakamoto’s original plan.
Rivalries are perhaps less important today than they were back in 2017, but the maxis within each camp seem to feel the differences among them are still too big to reach common ground. Decrypt asked Roger Ver if he saw any chance of both communities collaborating in the future, and he seemed to advocate letting the market decide.
"Once people wake up and realize that the development of BTC has been captured, and they realize that second layers have failed to scale Bitcoin, my hope is that people will recognize BCH is an excellent alternative, is technically superior, and can be both digital gold and digital cash at the same time," Ver said.
What aspects of Bitcoin have been compromised? “The book explains the details,” he replied.
Ver is probably the most notable leading voice in the BCH community, but he emphasized the decentralized nature of the network and the community when asked about the future roadmap for the token.
“There is no CEO of Bitcoin Cash,” he told Decrypt. “I don’t find this question very relevant to myself.”
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.