Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin Calls Bitcoin Cash 'Mostly a Failure'

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin took to Twitter on New Years Day to highlight some of what he’s written and said about the blockchain space over the last 10 years and how those views have evolved. During the tweetstorm, Buterin also shared his current thoughts on Bitcoin Cash, an altcoin that was created in 2017 by forking the original Bitcoin blockchain.

“I was optimistic about Bitcoin Cash specifically, because I agreed with the big-blocker arguments in the scaling war more than the small-blocker argument,” Buterin wrote on Saturday in response to a 2017 tweet he wrote about BCH.

The Russian-Canadian programmer who wrote the Ethereum whitepaper in 2013 then laid out why he sees Bitcoin Cash as “mostly a failure.”

“Today, I would call BCH mostly a failure,” Buterin tweeted. “My main takeaway: communities formed around a rebellion, even if they have a good cause, often have a hard time long term, because they value bravery over competence and are united around resistance rather than a coherent way forward.”

Crypto Twitter was quick to respond to Buterin’s critique. “It was not a good cause,” wrote Blockstream co-founder and CEO Adam Back. “It was a rejected corporate takeover attempt. Learn history man. You supported it even. Meh.”

“Projection is a bitch,” wrote The Bitcoin Matrix Podcast host Cedric Youngelman.

“That is a very interesting characterization of rebellions,” wrote Id Software founder John Carmack.

“Failure?” wrote author, programmer, and Bitcoin Cash maximalist Cyprian, formerly known as Vin Armani. “How much gas would I pay to send $1 in USDT on Ethereum right now? (Hint: $20). Sending $1 in USDT on BCH costs less than a cent. What was the mission, again?”

Buterin co-founded Ethereum in 2015 alongside Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, Anthony Di Iorio, and Joseph Lubin. In 2017, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) hard forked (or split) from the main Bitcoin network. The following year, Bitcoin Cash saw a split of its own into Bitcoin ABC (Adjustable Blocksize Cap), which retained the name “Bitcoin Cash,” and Bitcoin SV (Bitcoin Satoshi Vision). Supporters of both altcoins have claimed each to be “the real” Bitcoin.