Vitalik Buterin Calls Bitcoin SV a ‘Pure Dumpster Fire’

Buterin appears to be a man of his word. On Aug 21, 2018, he tweeted his opposition against Craig Wright, a leader in the movement for Bitcoin SV, to succeed Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

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.eth (@VitalikButerin) August 22, 2018

Bitcoin SV was announced as a restructuring of BCH on Aug 16 by Jimmy Nguyen, CEO of nChain. Bitcoin Cash ABC was announced four days later. Though it necessitated changes to the original BCH protocol, it did propose the radical changes proposed by Nguyen and support by Wright. Wright attempted to avoid a split by offering his continued support for Bitcoin SV, even after Bitcoin ABC was announced.

The Bitcoin Cash Civil War

On Nov 15, 2018, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) hard forked at block 556,767. Two new cryptocurrencies emerged: Bitcoin Cash ABC and Bitcoin SV. Support for both of them remains strong. Buterin has not offered support for either, though he has maintained his vocal opposition against Bitcoin SV.

Yeah no, I have my disagreements with the bitcoin roadmap, PoW, etc but they're trying to do something that's genuinely cool tech. BSV is a pure dumpster fire.

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) December 25, 2018

Currently, the ‘Bitcoin Cash Civil War’ continues with Bitcoin Cash ABC and Bitcoin SV vying for dominance.

The Real Bitcoin Cash?

Binance calls Bitcoin SV “Bitcoin Cash SV” and lists it as BCHSV. On other exchanges, such as Huboi and Kraken, it is commonly listed as BSV. Furthermore, there is little agreement as to how to list Bitcoin Cash ABC. While Binance lists it as BCHABC, Huboi and Kraken list it as BCH, implying by ticker alone that Bitcoin Cash ABC is the real Bitcoin Cash. CoinMarketCap lists both Bitcoin SV (BSV) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) but does not include Bitcoin Cash ABC.

Support for the Bitcoin Roadmap

Before creating Ethereum in 2014, Buterin was a vocal supporter of Bitcoin. He worked for the blog Bitcoin Weekly before co-founding Bitcoin Magazine. In his Christmas tweet above, he confirms his maintained support for Bitcoin while, at the same time, distancing himself from Bitcoin SV. He is not alone. This contentious hard fork of Bitcoin Cash is similar to the contentious hard fork of Bitcoin on Aug 1, 2017. Just as there were movements in support of both Bitcoin Cash ABC and Bitcoin SV during this hard fork, there were similar movements in support of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash last year. In certain instances, supporters of Bitcoin during the contentious hard fork of 2017 continue to oppose Bitcoin Cash and its new hard forks in continued support of the original Bitcoin. Buterin’s maintained support of the Bitcoin Roadmap and calling its technology “genuinely cool” may add further credence to the original movement for Bitcoin during its hard fork last year. How do you think we move past the problems created by the Bitcoin hard fork? Would universal names on all exchanges help? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!