- A recent story of the Central Bank of Norway looking at BSV for its CBDC has proved to be not what it seems
- The story appears to have been planted by BSV advocates and is based on a report more than a year old
- Norway’s central bank has instead hired a Norwegian firm to test a CBDC on Hyperledger
Blockchains of all shapes and sizes are in a kind of adoption arms race over getting chosen to host the imminent wave of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). The closest any public has gotten so far was Tezos, which made the shortlist for the French CBDC two years ago, but the race appeared to have become tighter after rumours began to fly recently that Norway was considering Bitcoin SV (BSV) to be its CBDC. On closer inspection however, the evidence supporting this claim was, like much of its founder’s evidence for being Satoshi Nakamoto, twisted to fit a different narrative and heavily flawed.
CBDC Link is Old ‘News’
The suggestion that the Central Bank of Norway (Norges Bank) is considering BSV for its CBDC began doing the rounds this week after two articles on the matter appeared online – one from Unbounded Capital and one from Namecoin News. Both referenced a Norges Bank report which spoke of Bitcoin SV as a contender for its CBDC operation. However, there are some caveats to bear in mind before heading off to whatever exchanges BSV is still on these days and picking some up.
Firstly, it’s important to note that the report was from May 2021 but was being reported as if it was new. Secondly, it’s clear from the English translation of the report that BSV was only used as an example of a public blockchain and in fact Ethereum gets more mentions in the passage itself:
To put this nothing-burger into perspective, in a 71-page document, #BSV is mentioned once, along with #Bitcoin and Ethereum.
I have translated the pile of nothing from page 32 below.
(link to original:https://t.co/gkVcrlwkRh ) https://t.co/teDUGGTz70 pic.twitter.com/E563gFM9JG
— Peter Scott-Morgan (@PeterScottMorg1) August 30, 2022
Since this report was published, Norges Bank has in fact begun sandboxing a CBDC on a private blockchain through a Norwegian startup, Nahmii, with the blockchain chosen for the testing none other than a private version of the enterprise blockchain Hyperledger, which Wright has lambasted in the past for its ‘fake news’ trials.
Unbounded Capital Shows its Limitations
So where did this 16-month-old story come from? It seems to have originated from pro-BSV outlet Unbounded Capital who cited Stephan Nilsson, CEO of Norwegian Bitcoin SV-powered company UNISOT, who claimed that it had been in dialogue with Norges Bank “for several years” over using BSV, which doesn’t exactly make it feel like a particularly recent event.
Nilsson goes on to say that Norges Bank is “initiating an ‘experimental testing of technical solutions’” with one solution to be chosen after that. What he does not say is whether BSV is among those solutions being tested, which you’d think he would if it was. As we know, however, they are in fact using a version of Hyperledger, not BSV.
Namecoin News is Fake News
We can therefore discount Unbounded Capital’s claims as being unproven at the very least, but what of Namecoin News? Things get suspicious when their piece ends with unbridled praise for BSV:
BSV as a blockchain is highly scalable because of its unbounded block size cap. The property is a big requirement for the Central Bank, with low transaction fees and quick transaction finality. Seeing how BSV excels at all three fronts, its chances of getting selected for the CBDC are high.
Hmmm. Something smells fishy.
What of the author, Sarah Gillard? There’s not much to know about her – she has no online presence outside of the website, and her Twitter account, like the Twitter accounts of all the Namecoin News team, has been suspended. Not a great measure of authenticity.
Search Engine Seeding?
Overall then, it’s pretty clear that this is a seeded piece by the BSV hierarchy, although why this story and why now is unclear. Perhaps it is an attempt to influence search engine results regarding the Hodlonaut vs Craig Wright case coming up in a few days, which just so happens to be taking place in Oslo, Norway.
Either way, the attempt was about as sloppy, and convincing, as a Craig Wright forgery.
