- BSV claimed to represent the true vision of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto
- It has focused on big data and government and business adoption in recent months
- Does it still bear any resemblance to Satoshi’s real vision for Bitcoin?
Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision (BSV), as its name suggests, was designed to be the true vision of the Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto when it forked from Bitcoin Cash in 2018. Led by Satoshi Nakamoto wannabe Craig Wright, the project has had a less than stellar time of it, falling behind Bitcoin in terms of price, adoption, reputation, and security. Attacks on its blockchain have become a regular occurrence, and financial backer Calvin Ayre recently rebranded BSV to BS…B…BSV Enterprise Utility Blockchain or However You Want to Phrase The Words, taking it one step further from being what Satoshi envisioned Bitcoin to be. The question is, does it still bear any resemblance to the original vision of Satoshi Nakamoto?
Electronic Cash of Big Data?
Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision is neatly summed up in the abstract of the Bitcoin whitepaper, in which he described Bitcoin as “a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash”. This is at odds with the belief of Ayre, who in December 2020 stated that the intention of Bitcoin had in fact been to be “the world’s best at big data management”. When it comes to an ideological battle over Bitcoin between its creator and a shady casino tycoon with a criminal past, we’re going to side with Satoshi.
Ayre’s attempt to sway the narrative towards data is understandable – this is the direction in which BSV is trying to push itself, yet it still needs the Satoshi Nakamoto brand, so it has to take it along for the ride. However, the concept of ‘big data’ has absolutely nothing to do with Satoshi’s vision for Bitcoin, so BSV has already fallen at the first like a drunk trying the 110 meter hurdles.
Hey Big (Double) Spender
Next in the Bitcoin whitepaper abstract, Nakamoto references double spending, stating that the Bitcoin creators “propose a solution to the double-spending problem using a peer-to-peer network”, one that relies on multiple contributors to ensure that a single entity cannot control the entire blockchain.
BSV has failed in this regard in the most spectacular way possible. A single entity, TAAL, controls over 60% of the BSV hashrate, something that most other projects would baulk at. At BSV towers however this seems to be accepted, possibly because if it wasn’t for TAAL mining as much as they are then the BSV blockchain would crumble into digital dust.
A single entity with so much control flies in the face of Nakamoto’s vision, and presents the kind of security problems that have seen 51% attacks and block reorganizations occurring on a regular basis – exactly what Nakamoto warned about in the Bitcoin whitepaper. This introduces the potential for the kind of double spending that Satoshi Nakamoto specifically designed Bitcoin to avoid but that has been readily accepted in the BSV camp.
BSV is Unrecognisable From Nakamoto’s Vision
If the abstract of the Bitcoin whitepaper sums up the aims and objectives of the project, as indeed all good abstracts should, then it’s clear for anyone to see that Bitcoin SV is less of an homage to Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision and more of a problem child that has stolen its dad’s car and crashed it into a tree, ending up on life support as a result.
How Wright, Ayre and the rest of the cast of Police Academy think that businesses and governments are going to be remotely interested in a blockchain that has chosen to leave itself vulnerable is beyond comprehension, and surely it’s only a matter of time before this experiment is shut down and the facility burnt to the ground.
