Bitcoin Cash’s Roger Ver compares Bitcoin maximalists to racists and says the Australian Government is too unreasonable to let him visit.
Maximalists are, of course, the hardcore fundamentalists of crypto – true believers that the one and only true coin is Bitcoin and that all other projects are by definition ‘shitcoins’.
“I think it’s kind of like a form of racism and tribalism. It’s like: ‘oh, my group is better than your group’,” he told Micky.
“When I say I like Bitcoin Cash so much, it doesn’t mean I don’t like other coins. Like Ethereum is awesome, Dash is awesome, Monero is awesome.
“There’s so many awesome coins out there with passionate communities but the maximalism is stupid and I think we need to see a lot less of that in the space.”
Australia’s embrace of Bitcoin Cash
Then there was the recent Bitcoin Cash City conference in Townsville that helped propel BCH to 92% of the entire retail crypto spend in September.
To be sure, that’s 92% of around $40,000 in total of crypto spent in retail, but that’s many thousands more than any other crypto.
So why didn’t he attend the Bitcoin City Cash conference?
“I really wanted to go myself (to Bitcoin Cash City conference) but the Australian Government for the visa process asked me to list every single country I’ve been to, and the day I went in and out of that country for the previous ten years.
$50 million Bitcoin Cash tech park
Micky has contacted Townsville City Council for further information on the project but is yet to hear back.
“I heard about it just like you did and thought: that sounds fantastic,” he said. “But like a lot of things in life, believe it when it happens.”
Ver goes head to head with Dr Doom
Ver recently took on Nouriel Roubini in a debate at London’s CC Forum and he was pretty pleased with how it went.
“I think it went pretty well,” Ver said. “The fact that he was attacking me for having sold firecrackers on eBay, which has nothing to do with whether or not cryptocurrencies are useful to the world, I think it’s a pretty clear sign that I did just fine.”
Ver won the debate largely because he’s so resolutely positive about crypto and it was held in front of a crypto conference crowd.
Roubini constantly referred to Bitcoin Cash’s 95% price crash from its all-time high as a black mark against Ver.
But given BCH aims to actually be used as a day to day currency, rather than some speculative instrument like Bitcoin Core, is a moderate and more stable price actually a net positive?
“The price is just the side effect of adoption in commerce and the more people using these cryptocurrencies … that’s what will drive the price up.”
Best selling author Neal Stephenson is not Satoshi
Our story was illustrated with a picture of Ver with Stephenson, so it seems only fitting to ask him what he thought of the story.
“But I think that’s unlikely (that Neal is Satoshi) because I’m the one who set Neal Stephenson up with his first Bitcoin wallet and sent him some Bitcoin back in like, probably 2013 or 2014.”
Could Stephenson have been play-acting ignorance to throw Ver off the scent?
“I don’t think so,” said Ver. “I had to hold his hand through the installation of the blockchain.info wallet back then. And I think I sent him a whole Bitcoin!”