Cryptocurrency News

New Revelations Indicate Twitter May Be Considering Removing The Bitcoin Handle

Librehash
April 23, 2019

The latest target of the crypto community’s outrage has been the Bitcoin Twitter account, found here: https://twitter.com/Bitcoin

The primary reason for the angst surrounding the ‘Bitcoin’ Twitter handle has is due to its advocacy of the Bitcoin Cash protocol instead of Bitcoin Core.

For those that do not know, Bitcoin Cash is the product of a hard fork that occurred on the Bitcoin protocol back in summer of 2017. The ‘split’ was the summation of debates within the community on the best way to scale moving forward.

Brief Background Behind Bitcoin Cash’s Creation

In a nutshell, Bitcoin Cash proponents feel that increasing the block size (among other measures) would be the best way to scale Bitcoin’s underlying software.

Conversely, those on the Bitcoin Core protocol have classically been against modifying the coded hard limit for the block size (1 MB) to be increased via hard fork. However, in 2017, the Core protocol did introduce a soft fork that activated Segregated Witness, which essentially “increased” the maximum block size possible by adjusting how the protocol measures date (weight vs. size).

Background Behind the ‘@Bitcoin’ Twitter Handle and Bitcoin.com

Roger Ver, a notable early proponent of the Bitcoin Core protocol, decided to publicly side with Bitcoin Cash advocates during the fight.

Many interpreted this to be a ‘betrayal’ of the Bitcoin Core community and subsequently labeled Ver a ‘Judas’ and gave him other unsavory nicknames.

The reason why Roger Ver is important to this story is because he is the manager of the ‘@Bitcoin’ Twitter handle as well as the https://bitcoin.comwebsite.

Prior to the hard fork that birthed Bitcoin Cash, the Bitcoin Twitter and Bitcoin.com website were both used to advocate and disseminate information related to Bitcoin Core.

Why Are So Many in the Cryptocurrency Space Campaigning Against the ‘Bitcoin’ Twitter Handle?

Since the hard fork, the ‘Bitcoin’ Twitter handle has been used to advocate and spread general awareness for Bitcoin Cash.

In addition, the ‘Bitcoin’ Twitter handle has also espoused the view that ‘Bitcoin Cash’ (as it is listed on exchanges), is the “real” Bitcoin.

Below is a tweet from the ‘@Bitcoin’ Twitter account that shares an article titled, ’12 reasons why Bitcoin Cash is the Real Bitcoin’:

12 Reasons Bitcoin Cash is the Real Bitcoinhttps://t.co/UeBNmOm1cf
— Bitcoin (@Bitcoin) February 2, 2018

In essence, the view from the side of proponents of Bitcoin Cash that share this philosophy is that:

Bitcoin Core was the ‘true Bitcoin’ up to a point. However, a failure on the part of Core developers to provide adequate scaling solutions forced other members of the community to take matters into their own hands via hard fork.
Certain members of the Bitcoin Cash community (Roger Ver, in particular) believe that the Core team has ‘lost its way’, and thus, no longer adequately represents Bitcoin. Conversely, Bitcoin Cash is supposed to serve as the version of Bitcoin that is most authentically aligned with the goals that Satoshi Nakamoto detailed in the now famous Bitcoin whitepaper.
Bitcoin Cash is the rightful continuation of the protocol and thus, ‘Bitcoin’.

Response From the Bitcoin Core Community

Such actions have drawn considerable ire from the portion of the community that supports/favors Bitcoin Core (and this constituency notably outweighs the Bitcoin Cash community in number and influence currently).

As stated above, many proponents of Bitcoin Core abhor Bitcoin Cash’s mere existence, but the notion that Bitcoin Cash is the ‘real Bitcoin’ has only intensified the public outcry from Bitcoin Core supporters.

Numerous Bitcoin Core supporters, both high and low-profile, have argued that the ‘@Bitcoin’ Twitter should be suspended because it is ‘misleading’ in its content by putting out information claiming that Bitcoin Cash = Bitcoin.

In 2018, it appears that Core supporters were actually successful in getting the ‘@Bitcoin’ Twitter suspended for a fixed period of time.

However, the account was shortly reinstated afterward, much to the disappointment of many Core supporters.

Why This is Bad News For the ‘@Bitcoin’ Twitter Account (if true)

The veracity of this screenshot can not be confirmed at the time of writing. But if it is true, then this may foreshadow punitive action for the ‘@Bitcoin’ Twitter account.

Reason #1

Twitter is not restricted by their T&C or ToS when it comes to removing users from their platform.

Source: https://twitter.com/en/tos

This is worth noting because the reply from Jack Dorsey (CEO of Twitter) appears to indicate that he is open to taking action on the ‘@Bitcoin’ Twitter handle on the basis of the community’s recommendation.

If this is so, this would spell bad news for the ‘@Bitcoin’ handle, which brings us to reason number two.

Reason #2

As the ‘Bitcoin.com’ piece stated, Jack Dorsey is a major outspoken proponent of Bitcoin Core, in specific.

Tweets such as the one below affirm this:

why?
— Eduardo Silva (@sereiindelicado) February 5, 2019

In addition, Jack is the CEO of Square, which is a payment processing platform. Jack has also been very vocal, publicly, about integrating tools into the Square platform for transacting Bitcoin:

#BitcoinTwitter and #CryptoTwitter! Square is hiring 3-4 crypto engineers and 1 designer to work full-time on open source contributions to the bitcoin/crypto ecosystem. Work from anywhere, report directly to me, and we can even pay you in bitcoin! Introducing @SqCrypto. Why?
— jack 🌍🌏🌎 (@jack) March 20, 2019

‘CashApp’, a popular mobile payments platform based in the United States, is a subsidiary of Square and it has already integrated Bitcoin payments into its platform.

This is something that Jack has also promoted publicly:

Just bought a ⁦@Trezor⁩ hardware wallet with bitcoin through @CashApp⁩ pic.twitter.com/TBYn1q5XzI
— jack 🌍🌏🌎 (@jack) March 7, 2019

In addition, Jack Dorsey is a listed investor in Lightning Labs, the primary company responsible for the Lightning Network’s creation.

Lightning Labs just raised millions from Jack Dorsey and others to supercharge blockchain transactions

Has Jack Indicated Said or Done Anything That Indicates Animosity Toward Bitcoin Cash’s Existence?

No. At least not yet at the time of writing.

However, given the fact that Jack Dorsey is a huge proponent of Bitcoin Core, it is not hard to imagine that he more than likely would strongly disagree with the assertion that Bitcoin Cash is the ‘real Bitcoin’. Thus, this disposition, in itself, could play out negatively for the ‘@Bitcoin’ Twitter handle or make Jack Dorsey more predisposed toward siding with arguments that some action should be taken.

Conclusion

For the time being, it appears that the ‘@Bitcoin’ Twitter handle is safe, despite the sustained and very public campaign to have it removed or its ownership transferred to an individual the Core community deems will use it in a responsible manner.

Since no one has threatened to boycott Twitter’s platform and the narrative does not necessarily imply that Twitter is wrong for allowing ‘@Bitcoin’ to remain in existence, there isn’t necessarily a lot of external pressure on the platform to take any action in the near future.

Given how polarizing this issue is, it is very possible that Twitter decides to abstain from acting at all.

Small Side Note: The ‘Bitcoin’ Twitter Handle is Noticeably Not Verified. Notably, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, and a slew of others are.

Librehash

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