At this point, it’s no secret that Roger Ver is making big efforts to legitimize Bitcoin Cash as the original vision of Satoshi Nakamoto, the only version of the coin which works the way he remembers back in the day, and therefore the real Bitcoin. It’s as if Pepsi started calling their drink the real Coke in 1985 when Coca Cola decided to change the recipe of their fizzy beverage.

Anyway, this campaign constantly tries to use Bitcoin personalities who believe big blocking is the solution to the scaling debate. For example, one of the first infamous figures in crypto to embrace the “BCH = Bitcoin” discourse was Craig S. Wright, the false prophet who claims to be Satoshi in spite of his proven limited understanding of the technology (don’t take my word, check out the opinions of Vitalik Buterin and Charlie Lee).

John McAfee, who reportedly charges over $100.000 for a crypto endorsement tweet also poses as a friend of Roger Ver and Jihan Wu who just happens to support Bitcoin Cash (alongside all the other coins he posts about). Nevertheless, Mr. McAfee’s actions aren’t that big of a surprise.

Instead, the surprising supporter of BCH is Gavin Andresen, the man who was left in charge of the Bitcoin project after Satoshi Nakamoto left, and the founder of the Bitcoin Foundation. Yet given his controversial claim that Craig S. Wright is in fact the Bitcoin founder, it only makes sense that he would follow the leadership of those who support his worldview.

 

Roger Ver Used Erik Voorhees Quote Out Of Context

There are plenty of reasons why Erik Voorhees is influential in the crypto space, and the fact that he’s the CEO of ShapeShift only scratches the surface. He’s been an advocate of the economic freedom which Bitcoin enables way before he discovered cryptocurrencies, his contributions as a Bitcoin entrepreneur have been instrumental in the exponential growth of bitcoin. His eloquent libertarian argumentation has made him one of the main characters of the Netflix documentary “Banking on Bitcoin” (which everyone and their mom has watched), and he was one of the most influential advocates of the New York Agreement.

This last detail about Mr. Voorhees activity is very relevant in this context, as he believed that both SegWit and doubling the block size are the means to resolving Bitcoin’s scaling issues. It was the hard fork which many Bitcoin heavyweights supported, and in February 2016 (a year and a half before Bitcoin Cash even existed) the ShapeShift CEO happened to make a rather interesting statement about seeking new leadership if his expectations aren’t met.

Through a wrongful association, Roger Ver claimed that he fervently advocates for Bitcoin Cash for the same reasons why Erik Voorhees stated he would seek a new Bitcoin leadership if the hard fork doesn’t work out as planned.

However, the ShapeShift CEO and long-time Bitcoin investor couldn’t allow being taken out of context for the purpose of spreading BCH propaganda. Instead of explaining the context of his quote or saying that he might have been wrong at the time, he’s used his 280 characters to explain why there is only one original Bitcoin and everything else is just an altcoin. Perhaps the most memorable part of the entire argument is “The Bitcoin Cash fork failed to gain majority, thus it is not Bitcoin.”

Erik Voorhees’ series of explanations didn’t stop at putting the “failed” verb after “The Bitcoin Cash”, though. He was pushed to justify why he had made the statement at the time, and why the ShapeShift Twitter page called Bitcoin “Bitcoin Core”.

Roger Ver hasn’t responded to this thread, and it was probably for the better. Yet Bitcoin Cash supporters had become more aggressive in the comment section and tried to make Mr. Voorhees explain why he would make that statement and how come his reaction isn’t in tune with a recent tweet which was posted by the ShapeShift page.

Erik didn’t feel like being misunderstood for the wrong purposes, so he carried on with the explanations. First of all, he made it clear that he doesn’t endorse BCH and his words from an old interview shouldn’t be interpreted as such.

Secondly, he once again refused to acknowledge Bitcoin Cash as the original Bitcoin and expressed his disappointment with the fact that an old statement of his had been taken out of context.

To conclude the defense of his public image, the star of “Banking on Bitcoin” said that using the “Bitcoin Core” terminology on the official ShapeShift Twitter page was nothing but a marketing mistake which had been corrected, and people shouldn’t read into it.

Nevertheless, the usual BCH advocates started to make up conspiracy theories about the intervention. There is no way he could have spoken out of principle and honesty, and it must be the Blockstream mafia which holds Erik back from being completely straight about his views.

So, I’ll leave you with this insightful tweet which must reveal Mr. Voorhees’ true ideas and intentions in regards to BCH because some believe he is a man who’s afraid to express his thoughts. Also, this is revealing for the ridiculous propaganda and disinformation that we’re going to keep on seeing on Twitter and Reddit from the BCash groups.