While debating with Roger Ver, the creator of Litecoin, Charlie Lee had the opportunity to touch on the “rivalry” between the Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) communities. After playing several topics – such as the importance of Lightning Network – Charlie was able to confront Roger about his way of promoting the most popular altcoin among all Bitcoin forks.
For Charlie, the fact that Roger renames Bitcoin as Bitcoin Core and then complains that the Bitcoin community refers to his project as Bcash is hypocritical. And so he kindly put it to the former Bitcoin Jesus:
Charlie: -Can I ask you something? … So, You’re upset when people call Bitcoin Cash “Bcash” Right?
Roger: – I’m annoyed by it, I think it’s rude
Charlie: – Yet, you call Bitcoin “Bitcoin Core,” Isn’t that hypocrite?
BTC vs BCH: A “Cultural” Rivalry Unique On The Crypto-Verse
Charlie’s question involves the most relevant cultural aspect of all the rivalry between the Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) communities. The problem goes beyond the recognition and right of Bitcoin (BTC) to retain its name after the chain split.
The Bitcoin community (BTC) uses the term Bcash generally for two purposes depending on the circumstances. Either they do it to differentiate both currencies and use an easier name, or they use it as a pejorative term because they consider that the Bitcoin Cash project is questionable for promoting itself as the real Bitcoin.
This phenomenon has never been repeated in any other cryptocurrency. For example, after the DAO Hack, the Ethereum blockchain was split in two. Ethereum Classic (ETC) kept the original code while Ethereum (ETH) performed a fork on the blockchain that reversed the effects of the hack.
Despite philosophical differences, the Ethereum Classic community has never been accused of generating confusion by trying to declare itself as the “real” Ethereum. In that blockchain, they respected the community vote.
Another example of the misuse of names is the XRP token that many people refer to as “Ripple” which is the name of the company that developed the blockchain. The use of different names has never been considered offensive. This is only true to the Bitcoin Cash community.
No More “Bitcoin Core”
Roger Ver responded that he tried to make a distinction between the two blockchains and felt that Bitcoin Cash had more reason to be considered the real Bitcoin. He commented that he had made a list comparing the features of BTC and BCH and that BCH filled 8 of the 10. Charlie Lee refuted that argument saying that by that time, Litecoin (LTC) filled 9 of those 10 features and yet he would never dare to say that LTC is the real Bitcoin.
Charlie advised Roger that if it bothered him that the Bitcoin (BTC) community referred to BCH as Bcash, he should not use the term “Bitcoin Core” to talk about Bitcoin (BTC). Apparently, Roger accepted the argument by stating that he will refer to Bitcoin by its “BTC” ticker:
Charlie: -My advice to you is that if you are really upset about people calling me Bcash, you shouldn’t call Bitcoin “Bitcoin Core”
Roger: -Sure, I’ll just call it “BTC “from now on, Is that a better option?
Full debate can be seen below:
