TL;DR: Proof of Social Media (PoSM) is a CoinSpice quick take of the ecosystem’s temperature through the lenses of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Twitter, and wherever else sentiment can be observed. This installment of PoSM follows the curious push by Bitcoin SV (BSV) proponents of an initial coin offering (ICO), Zeux, as a major step for their contentiously-forked project. Diehard followers are balking at the idea, wondering at the marketing fuss by major BSV financial backers. Apologists are insisting they’ve nothing to do with the ICO, only the application. This could get tricky.

More Spice: Bitcoin White Paper Webcomic by Comics Legend Scott McCloud

Bitcoin SV Team Pushes Zeux App ICO Hard, Followers Rebel

Wherever Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay are allowed! An immediate reality! Proof rather than talk! Tangible utility! A pivotal moment for mass adoption! The marketing hype over the last few days has been constant.

A coordinated series of articles in lesser-known crypto news outlets, along with laudatory Twitter praise by BSV financier Calvin Ayre, former nChain CEO Jimmy Nguyen, and BSV’s id, Craig S. Wright, referred to a partnership announcement with Zeux in the above manner.

ICOs and tokenization were often a major fault in crypto’s development, according to these same BSV lights, who at times threatened everything from accusations of scams to serious jail time for those participating in such arrangements (ICOs have gained in popularity since 2014). It was then odd, to put it mildly, when Ayre, Nguyen, and Wright threw their considerable weight in the BSV community toward an out-an-out tokenizing ICO platform, Zeux.

Immediate Doesn’t Mean What You Think it Means

“Being on-boarded by Zeux adds a very important layer for BSV as it can now be used to pay in people’s daily lives,” Ayre explained. “It is a pivotal moment for mass adoption of cryptocurrencies – very exciting times.” nChain’s Nguyen doubled-down, insisting, “Bitcoin is supposed to be genuine digital money, and Zeux’s forward-thinking platform makes this an immediate reality.” And Wright dutifully retweeted along similar lines.

The Zeux roadmap is slightly less enthusiastic, however, suggesting this month it will launch in the UK and “soft launch in the rest of [the] EU.” By June, they’re expecting an official “launch in the EU and soft launch in the US,” and as of November of this year (more than 7 months from present announcements) they expect to officially “launch in Europe and [the] US.” Immediate might be overstating the case.

In response to a tweet by Nguyen, a commenter asked innocently, “Hi Jimmy, any details on how and when this will happen? Do they have partnerships in place with existing POS providers? This is too vague to get excited and not enough info is provided as to how this will happen.”

Verbal Gymnastics, Enter Sunshine and Lollipops

Zeux answered, “With @ZeuxApp you will be able to use #BSV at POS that accepts #applepay or #samsungpay through instant conversion. No more waiting, Cryptopayments for everyday life. 😃,” coyly not addressing the questions asked. “Yes I got that from the video,” the same commenter replied, “but the question is rather about HOW this integration will happen with the existing pos systems and when this will occur.” No follow up by the account. A few more comments of that variety followed.

Known for his reasonableness, sunshine, and rainbows, Ari Kuqi of SharkPool, an ardent BSV jihadist, entered the fray. “Seeing this ‘zeux news’ for days now, I flipped through their ‘whitepaper’. Yup, pre-sold token getting ready for an ICO. I can’t believe people are still falling for this stuff,” Kuqi scolded. “They already did a pre-sale according to their ‘whitepaper’, there must be a dump on retail ‘investors’, it’s imminent. But hey, they’re solving ‘real’ chaos in users mind, beautifully represented in their ‘whitepaper.’”

Indeed, the white paper does read as standard ICO fare, and BSV fundamentalists are quick to separate the app from the ICO and a forthcoming token. The direct link with Apple Pay to BSV is through intermediaries, if at all, of course, as it would be through other ancillary platforms. BSV will be at least one of three cryptos Zeux hosts, bitcoin core (BTC) and ether (ETH) being the others, and likely more will be added, assuming the project survives. And should it come to actual fruition beyond marketing hype, Zeux might be considered a lesser clone of BitPay or a poor man’s CashApp from Square, where fiat is what’s being accepted on the retail side, not BSV — that’s how the white paper reads, anyway.

The market seemed to shrug off the hyped news, and BSV remains out of the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, actually dropping in price since the barrage. However, ICO and token aside, if Zeux does move the needle and avoids silly politics while greasing the relationship between crypto and mainstream merchants, all the better. So far, it’s just PoSM.

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