Many people might not have heard of Vin Armani – we don’t fault you if you haven’t. But, the outspoken and controversial personality’s latest prophecy is that Craig “Satoshi” Wright and Calvin Ayre are going to team up to kill Bitcoin Cash’s ABC miners – taking control of Bitcoin Cash for good. Once they have conquered Bitcoin Cash, the pair will allegedly turn to all other cryptos running on the SHA-256 algorithm, with Bitcoin as their final target. The pair are allegedly planning to bring an end to the crypto world just for fun and to become the winners of the crypto game.
In a Periscope broadcast, Vin Armani reads very carefully from a script and at times looks like he is being held at gunpoint. Yet, he remains adamant that the threat is real and the crypto industry will be left so destroyed that it won’t be around come 2019.
Kicking Off With a Hard Fork
Vin Armani believes that the hash war will begin on November 15th when Bitcoin Cash hard forks into two chains, one run by the ABC rule set and one by the BSV rule set. Wright and Ayre will be battling for BSV using their two mining pools – CoinGeek and nChain – and they are expected to configure a portion of their mining rigs to perform a sustained 51% attack on the ABC chain. The pair will attack the ABC chain for so long that all miners either convert to BSV or leave Bitcoin Cash entirely. The end goal is for Wright and Ayre to control Bitcoin Cash and its future development plans.
Killing ABC To Take Control
The 51% attack will leave the ABC chain in such a state that crypto exchanges and wallets will stop accepting transactions from the ABC chain and its nodes, causing it to become defunct. Wright and Ayre then hope that these wallets and exchanges will then accept the BSV as the only trusted Bitcoin Cash nodes.
Destroying BCH’s Value
In the process of centralizing Bitcoin Cash, Wright and Ayre will end up making thousands of holders sell their BCH, which in turn will create a crypto winter for Bitcoin Cash. The value of the crypto will likely tank to all-time lows, and become virtually worthless. It’s still unclear as to why the pair would risk losing billions of dollars in crypto assets just to prove a point and take over a network.
Coming for Other Cryptos
Once the duo have successfully gained total control of BCH, they will then turn their attention to other cryptos running on the SHA-256 algorithm. Especially Litecoin, Zcash, and Dash. Armani then goes on to say that other cryptos that begin to gain traction and fill the void aren’t safe.
The pair will then set their sights on killing those cryptos with sustained 51% attacks. The only coins that would be safe are pre-mined coins such as Ripple and the Petro – maybe Nicolas Maduro is onto something.
An Unlikely Event
We love doomsday predictions as much as the next news outlet, but this one it just a touch far-fetched. While Wright and Ayre might be able to push out ABC if other miners from the BTC mining pools don’t swap over to BCH mining, but they won’t be able to conquer the BTC network so easily. To put it into perspective, ViaBTC alone has more hash power than the entire hash power on the BCH network, and its only 10% of the BTC hash rate. This means that Wright and Ayre will need a lot more miners to get anywhere near a 51% attack on BTC.
If the pair do manage to take over the BCH network, it’s likely that crypto exchanges and wallets will recognize them as terrorists and stop trusting BSV nodes altogether – rendering their plan useless. Another factor to consider is the cost of mounting these attacks. According to Crypto51 App – an app that calculates the cost of a 51% attack on every cryptocurrency – it will cost $1.3 million per day to control the BCH network.
If their BCH attack lasts a week – long enough to force miners off the ABC network – it will severely deplete their cash reserves. Now, to do the same for BTC they will need $9.8 million per day, and with their BCH now virtually worthless, they simply can’t afford it.
We don’t suggest that you worry too much about this alleged crypto winter. The great crypto hash war of 2018 will soon be a distant memory and we will finally be able to not have to deal with Roger Ver throwing hissy fits. Shorting BCH might look like a good call right about now, but don’t hold us to it. If you hold BCH, it might be a good time to employ the help of a stablecoin to hedge those risks, or looking at an alternative crypto.
