Elizabeth Stark Denies Calling on the SEC to Investigate Bitcoin Cash

After a Twitter user alleged that Stark had called for the SEC to investigate BCH, Bitcoin engineer Jameson Lopp responded with a YouTube link to provide more context and quell the controversy. The video, recorded at a San Francisco Bitcoin Meetup in December 2017, shows Stark explaining the SEC’s ruling on Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).

Fell just as flat as @starkness call for SEC investigation into BCH.

— Tom Harding (@dgenr818) August 12, 2019

Stark Did Not Instigate SEC

In the video, Elizabeth Stark went on to state that exchanges listing ICO tokens need to be registered with the SEC. Failing to do so would mean they’re violating the law since many cryptocurrencies are now being considered securities. Responding to Lopp’s tweet, Stark agreed that BCH and SEC were not mentioned on stage, partly because she does not consider the Bitcoin fork to be a security in the first place.

The context was that this was the day that the SEC DAO report came out, so I was asked to explain that report to the audience.

And you're correct, I didn't say anything about BCH and the SEC (and wouldn't have as I don't think it's a security!)

— elizabeth stark ⚡ (@starkness) August 13, 2019

Elizabeth Stark recently made an appearance on the cryptocurrency talk show “Collin’ It Like It Is” alongside Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. Earlier this week, BCH proponent and investor Roger Ver claimed that Dorsey is only invested in the success of the Lightning Network because he “has/had a romantic relationship” with Stark.

Many believe that Ver’s statement was a result of Dorsey’s refusal to list Bitcoin Cash on Cash App, which he runs alongside Twitter. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin later commented on the incident, calling for Roger to apologize.

An early Bitcoin promoter, Ver turned critical of the cryptocurrency after the Bitcoin Cash fork emerged over two years ago. He also began criticizing some of its associated technologies, including the Lightning Network.

Bitcoin Cash Faces Difficulty in Gaining Wider Adoption

RT anchor Max Keiser recently called Bitcoin Cash a ‘wounded animal.’ He said that BCH is too volatile and predicted that it would struggle to stay above $100 in a year from now. Keiser added that the BCH project was a failure from the start and that its market cap is a product of manipulation which will be hard to sustain.

BCH is a wounded, volatile animal. A year from now it will struggle to stay above $100. The project was DOA from day-1. 90% of it’s market cap is the product of manipulation that will be impossible to meaningfully sustain.

— Max Keiser (@maxkeiser) August 12, 2019

While Bitcoin Cash has reported a year-to-date return of 120.70 percent, developers have done little to improve the BCH ecosystem, while we’re seeing Bitcoin itself performing quite well. Due to a lack of technological advancements, BCH is facing difficulty in gaining wider adoption. More recently, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin proposed Bitcoin Cash’s blockchain as a temporary data layer to solve Ethereum’s scalability problem.

Where do you think Bitcoin Cash is headed in 2019 and beyond? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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