Hello Steemit friends,

this post is about Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, intentions of people behind, technology and strategy. My motivation was the video below which shows a very self-confident Roger Ver and a more fidgety Samson Mow.. both making their points on future of electronic cash, current usuability.

You choose!

Everybody can chose today what cryptocurrency will have a bright future, everybody can use a cryptocurrency of his choice.. the more people believe in one cryptocurrency the more value it has on the market.. at least in the short term. If you watching the following video you'll get at least a feeling of tension between the two participants Samson Mow (Chief Strategy Officer - Blockstream) and Roger Ver (CEO - Bitcoin Cash).

Blockstream Exposed: Roger Ver, Samson Mow debate goes off the rails - video by CoinGeek

Quick Observation

First i decided to summarize the standpoints and the way each one talks, asks and answers from my perspective:

Roger Ver:

opinion/claim: Bitcoin Cash is the only solution for electronic cash
why: it follows the vision of Satoshi Nakamoto's idea with increasing the block size (currently 32 MByte)
approach: short term pragmatic business solution
bashing: Bitcoin Core used in 2 shops with Lightning Network worldwide?
usage: exchange, trading
mimic&gestures: quite calm, self-confident, loud and clear

Samson Mow

opinion/claim: Bitcoin is a store of value and become the electronic cash for the world
why: the Lightning Network provides the solution
approach: long term 2nd layer protocol
bashing: bcash
business case: exchange, trading
mimic&gestures: more fidgeting, grinning, sometimes irritated, calm debating

The Winner?

The more convincing participant for the crowd was in my point of view Roger Ver. He has that old devotion to his product and is not embarassed to attack Bitcoin (BTC) developers paint a clear picture of the current state. Samson Mow is in my eyes a bit too slow and less accurate with his arguments and also less clear about the current state of the Lightning Network and a schedule for real mass adoption. It leaves essential questions unanswered which is not good in the short term. Roger Ver knows the weakness and uses it as weapon for his marketing campaign. He is currently in a very good position because Mow cannot tell specific dates for launch and Ver has already a solution for the scaling issues with Bitcoin (BTC). But is this sustainable?

Long term solution?

Has Bitcoin Cash a long term thought solution with increasing the block size to increase the transactions per second? Basically yes. With the 32 MByte blocks and now also the ability for smart contracts and fewer transactions there is currently absolutely no congested blockchain in sight. Let's look at some specs today:

Currency	Bitcoin (BTC)	Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
max. Tx/s	7	247
cur. Tx/s	2.29	0.18
Tx/day	196,105	15,578
avg. fees	$0.15	$0.004
max. block size MB	1	32
cur. block size KB	580	44
utilization	57%	0.13%

In theory Bitcoin (BTC) can handle about 345,000 Tx/day without increasing backlog (mempool) taking the values from table above. Bitcoin Cash could handle about 12,000,000 Tx/day taking the current measured values from bitinfocharts.com. If you compare the fees Bitcoin Cash is currently the clear winner, even with the same number of transactions like Bitcoin (BTC) today it would be far cheaper. That's a real advantage.

But if we look at the real usage of the two cryptocurrencies Bitcoin is more than 12 times more often used than Bitcoin Cash today. That's a fact, whatever Roger Ver is saying about the potential of BCH but the number of transactions tell the truth. Bitcoin Cash must prove the claim that is so much more useful than Bitcoin (BTC) and people decide, not Roger Ver!

It's obvious that currently the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain is far less congested like months before but it needs just a new Hype, major announcement from a big business and BTC will run into trouble again with mempool backlog and much far too high fees. That's also a fact. The scalability issues remain as long Lightning Network is not working on full steam. Rick Falkvinge and Roger Ver waiting for the next congestion to present their supposed superior product. But with very low utilization or number of transactions every blockchain in the world can do the same!

Why has Blockstream no Solution today?

Samson Mow answered the question how long the Lightning Network, a scaling solution for Bitcoin (BTC) is now in the works with already 2 years. Roger Ver uses this also as weapon because he put a bad light on that as well in terms of supposed laziness, bad intentions by Blockstream to hinder ecash transactions for poor people.. but is that the whole story?

While Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has a scaling solution, at least for a while Bitcoin (BTC) is still in the testing phase but already on the mainnet with real money! as i reported. Mow indicates that a protocol like the Lightning Network protocol takes much more time than a pragmatic solution like Bitcoin Cash with just playing with a parameter. He is in a dilemma because with such low level works you cannot present a fancy solution like BCH does. It's impossible to opening the curtains if you are building still the ugly looking infrastructure.

I wanna paint a metaphor for that while Blockstream is still clearing the forest and dugging tunnels through whole mountains to prepare a brand new infrastructure, Bitcoin Cash is already marketing finished roads with restaurants, parking lots and and petrol stations based on old infrastructure but taking the route around the forest and mountains. In the short term this is a superior solution because your competitor has nothing to offer but in the long term you eventually lose everything because you'd looked always for the easy route, avoiding long term thinking and solving difficult obstacles for strategic planning and a paradigm shift for the demand of the future.

While Bitcoin Cash is just building wider roads to get higher troughput Bitcoin (BTC) will use lightning fast routing in a worldwide network. Eventually that is like comparing our current two dimensional automobile infrastructure with many traffic jams and high costs to three dimensional multilevel traffic like in the movie the fifth element or approaches like the Hyperloop or the Boring Company. means thinking different.

source

The Watershed Moment

But that means also you take a higher risk to lose customers because they want a solution yesterday.. not tomorrow or in a year. But for me it is still very early for mass adoption and Bitcoin (BTC) together with Lightning has a good chance to succeed before Bitcoin Cash will conquer the world.. i'm just kidding. In fact it will take many more years until the infrastructure is fully build like a chart by Ronnie Moas shows which compares it with the evolution of the internet.

source

To add one thing. Smart contracts, DApps are also in development for Bitcoin (BTC) together with Lightning Network. Rootstock and also a MIT initiative. Ronnie Moas sees a watershed moment very soon maybe til end of 2018 like with Netscape in the Nineties which pulls huge numbers of people into crypto space.

The Impact of Lightning Network

The implementation of Lightning Network would beat everything including Bitcoin Cash. The transaction fees would be near zero and each transaction would be instant with the push of a button or finger. What that means is very clear, pure mass adoption. That is the turning point for Bitcoin (BTC) because then we will streaming money fast, ultra-fast. Solutions like Bitcoin Cash would be obsolete or playing just a minor role in the future. But currently there is much dirty work to do for programmers and testers and that's the advantage for people like Roger Ver and their products.

source

The weapons of marketing

Recently Roger Ver released a video where he claims that Bitcoin Cash could be a 1000bagger in value appreciation in the future with mass adoption which is revealing at the same time his intentions. The video is interesting and well produced. It shows to me that he learned his lessons how to market his solution to the masses.. or should we say rich investors? It has a much more positive sentiment than his interview with the middle finger at the end..

"But nobody uses really Bitcoin Core for payments anymore. That's why i'm so bullish on Bitcoin Cash." (11:10 min)

'Big Money' is Coming To Bitcoin 🚀💰| Roger Ver Vlog 1 - video by Bitcoin.com - Official Channel

In contrast we can buy a virtual coffee which don't smells and tastes.. with Lightning Network

source

For a geek like me it's inspiring but not enough to show real world case. Also the Blockstream shop which is ridiculed by Roger Ver in the talk below is not enough to convince serious investors in my eyes.

source

BUT you must also understand that Roger Ver has a ongoing bias to exaggerate when he is saying things like.. nobody is using Bitcoin Core (to translate that understandable Bitcoin (BTC)).. that's simply not true. If you look at sites like this

https://acceptbitcoin.cash/#food which is a website dedicated to Bitcoin Cash you can clearly see the so called Bitcoin Legacy which is another term for Bitcoin (BTC) is often equally accepted as cash and was long before there. This is without the Lightning Network.. imagine with the support of this second layer, what will happen?

Be aware of the Power of Marketing

Blockstream should pay attention to this, because it can further feed investors appetite with more positive sentiment and trust. Maybe the days of cheap produced video material is over and Roger Ver recognizes the power of this medium for his marketing campaign.. or should i say crusade? I think in each interview or talk with Roger Ver there is a Freudian slip which reveals his true intentions. He is a business man and he is very enthused to market his product. I respect that, it needs much energy to be so persistent and straightforward but on the other hand i see also too much propaganda in his words which is in the end a bit suspicious and i think i'm not the only one who recognizes that.

But he improved his marketing approach in the past months and that could be dangerous also for the long term approach of the Lightning development because marketing is about emotions. If someone triggers the emotions of many people he has the power to sell his solutions and there are many cases where not the most sexiest product won the market or do you think Microsoft Windows is the most sexiest and best operating system of the world.. hmm i have some doubts.

Another Smoke Grenade - BTCC or Bitcoin Core

Honestly i was surprised and irritated by the recent news. But this seemingly new cryptocurrency is a old fork from Nov 2017 together with Bitcoin Cash. While Roger Ver calling Bitcoin (BTC) as Bitcoin Core, he (un)intentionally advertises now Bitcoin Clashic which was rebranded to BTCC - Bitcoin Core. I painted more than once my opinion on such marketing bullshit in my eyes because it makes it much more difficult for people who are new to cryptocurrencies and even myself gets headaches seeing all these fake naming, stealing brands and throwing smoke grenades to support money losses for BTC, BCH or BTCC users. It's a complete mess, period! Please stop that! That is everything i can say to people who start such deceptive marketing campaigns.

Please ask yourself what Satoshi Nakamoto wanted with his whitepaper.. his development.. a new form of currency which can be used worldwide by each and everyone.. CERTAINLY NOT deceive and mislead people with irritating names and marketing campaigns, losses at exchanges, resulting in poor knowledge about cryptocurrencies because of complications with all these forks and smoke grenades! I'm out here..

What is your opinion on these marketing efforts or smoke grenades?

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