War broke out over the weekend between Bitcoiners and supporters of new site Nakamoto.com – with the site’s Telegram shut down due to trolls.
Nakamoto.com: A pro-Bitcoin’ publication?
Love it or hate it social media plays a huge role in the crypto industry. Twitter has become the platform of choice for analysts and industry leaders.
The controversially named nakamoto.com was launched on Jan 4 on the 11th anniversary of Bitcoin’s Genesis Block, in effort to create a venue for ‘quality technical, philosophical, and cultural writing,’ on crypto.
Contributors included industry influencers and CEOs such as Brian Armstrong, Vitalik Buterin, the Winklevoss Twins, Roger Ver, Meltem Demirors, Brendan Blumer and a number of others.
The outlet claimed to be ‘pro-Bitcoin’ but the infiltration of non-Bitcoin material and the altcoin leaders riled some.
In particular the usage of the highly revered name irked the Bitcoin maximalists who initiated a weekend tweet war and trolling of the Nakamoto Telegram group, resulting in its temporary closure earlier today.
The mods cited “trolls and spambots” as the reason the channel was put into read only mode until it can migrate to “a paid chat with better [moderation] tooling”.
All Nakamoto contributors are pro-Bitcoin (BTC) for the long-term. We believe a commitment to the success of Bitcoin reflects core values of our community. Beyond that, we are ecumenical and publish a variety of points of view. See our contributors here: https://t.co/4AHvgpKAE9
— Nakamoto (@nakamoto) January 4, 2020
Much of their angst was directed at Ethereum co-founder Buterin who has been vocal about the limitations of proof of work consensus mechanisms.
Bitcoin Cash proponent Roger Ver has had his share of crypto grief in response to tweets such as this, which have repeatedly lambasted Bitcoin.
In a recent vitriol loaded Medium post Bitrefill CCO John Carvalho said “These people [nakamoto.com] have insulted the name of Bitcoin’s inventor, and are exploiting Bitcoin strictly to divert funds away from Bitcoin.”
Outspoken cryptocurrency podcaster Peter McCormack joined the fray;
Any use of the Satoshi Nakamoto name to promote anything outside of Bitcoin is disingenuous AF!
— Peter McCormack (@PeterMcCormack) January 5, 2020
The crux of the issue, for the Bitcoin maximalists anyway, is that the publication appears to be leveraging the Bitcoin founder’s name to ‘promote’ other blockchains and crypto assets.
Is it all toxic crypto tribalism?
Not all are of the opinion that the publication has wrongly commandeered the ‘Nakamoto’ name to promote altcoins and many see it as a good thing for the industry.
Onchain Capital CEO Ran NeuNer saw the backlash as demonstrating the very worst aspects of the crypto space.
Twitters response to https://t.co/iUhDUmftpO illustrates how rotten the space has become. Why not celebrate that there is another credible source that can drive adoption and education? Instead of this constant infighting why can we not rather focus the same energy on conversion?
— Ran NeuNer (@cryptomanran) January 5, 2020
The popular industry insider was joined by others including cryptographer and computer scientist Adam Back who pointed out “Most really are pro-BTC, even professional marketer detractors, ICO/alt premine funds are cashed to BTC later.”
Site contributor and former CTO of Coinbase, Balaji S. Srinivasan, added ; “Being pro-Bitcoin and holding BTC does not necessitate wishing another human being ill.”
Being pro-Bitcoin and holding BTC does not necessitate wishing another human being ill. It means being pro-Bitcoin: helping with adoption, onboarding, training, education. Making the community more welcoming and positive, to get the next billion people into Bitcoin.
— Balaji S. Srinivasan (@balajis) January 4, 2020
In this writer’s opinion the weekend spat over the publication has completely detracted from what everyone in crypto is trying to achieve regardless of their preferred blockchain – freedom from a failing fiat and banking system that is once again teetering on the edge of collapse.
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