Crypto entrepreneur Calvin Ayre predicts that the flagship cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, will plunge to zero in 2019 because it’s worthless. But never fear, he said, because Bitcoin Cash Satoshi Vision (BSV) will be there to save the day.

Interestingly, Ayre insists that the Bitcoin price is being deliberately deflated right now in order to stamp it out of existence. He did not offer any proof to back up his dubious claim.

“I am predicting it to go to zero value [in 2019], as it has no utility,” Ayre told Express UK. “It does not do anything, and they intentionally are anti-scaling.”

Ayre — who’s known for his controversial bluster — said Bitcoiners need not worry when their preferred crypto goes down in flames, because Bitcoin SV will happily take its place.

“Bitcoin — the technology and economic model — are alive and well with Bitcoin SV, and it’s going to have an amazing year,” he vowed.

Craig Wright: Original ‘Bitcoin Is A Sham’

Despite the fact that Bitcoin Cash is a derivative of Bitcoin, Ayre insists that the original cryptocurrency is an impostor and that Bitcoin SV is the “real bitcoin.”

Ayre’s fellow Bitcoin SV advocate — Australian crypto entrepreneur Craig Wright — agrees. “[BTC] is a sham bitcoin,” Wright has said. “SV is what bitcoin was, and is the only way it works.”

Reminder: Bitcoin Cash — the fourth-largest cryptocurrency — was created in August 2017 after the original Bitcoin underwent a hard fork.

A crypto civil war broke out in November 2018 when Bitcoin Cash (BCH) underwent its contentious hard fork.

The fork resulted in feuding Bitcoin Cash camps:

Bitcoin ABC (Adjustable Blocksize Cap) : This group adheres to the “official” Bitcoin Cash road map, which is supported by most node operators, and is endorsed by Bitcoin Cash proponent Roger Ver and Jihan Wu, co-founder of Bitcoin mining giant Bitmain.

: This group adheres to the “official” Bitcoin Cash road map, which is supported by most node operators, and is endorsed by Bitcoin Cash proponent Roger Ver and Jihan Wu, co-founder of Bitcoin mining giant Bitmain. Bitcoin SV (Satoshi’s Vision): This faction is backed by Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright and Calvin Ayre, the owner of CoinGeek, the largest Bitcoin Cash mining pool.

Ayre: Don’t Blame SV Camp For Bear Market

After the BCH hard fork, the price of the original Bitcoin tanked, bringing the rest of the market down with it.

Many in the crypto community blamed Ayre for forcing the hard fork that precipitated the market crash. But Ayre denies that he staged the hard fork in order to damage Bitcoin.

“The hard fork was a distraction, but the downturn is because the SegWit coin that’s erroneously still called ‘Bitcoin’ now follows the old-fashioned financial trends,” Ayre said. “It’s also because people wrongly focus on market cap, when it should be about scalability and actual usability.”

If anything, Ayre blames the Bitcoin ABC camp for the current market woes.

“There is no question that the hash dumping that the ABC conspirators did — in violation of the Nakamoto Consensus Rules that run Bitcoin — destabilized the markets even more.”

Ayre then reiterated his claim that unlike BTC, Bitcoin SV is a currency with real utility, and is not merely an asset.

Allaire: Bitcoin Has ‘Significant Role’ in Future

Meanwhile, Bitcoin evangelists remain ever-bullish about the original cryptocurrency and believe 2019 will be a watershed year.

Jeremy Allaire — the co-founder of Circle, a peer-to-peer payments technology company backed by Goldman Sachs — predicts that bitcoin prices will rocket over the next three years.

Bitcoin Price Will Soar over Next Three Years: Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire https://t.co/cJAQFUEzrj — CCN.com (@CCNMarkets) December 14, 2018

No matter what its daily price is, Allaire insists that bitcoin will play a “very significant role” in the future as a non-sovereign store of value.

“The key thing with bitcoin is that it is unique in its security and its scale,” Allaire explained. “As an idea that we need a scarce, non-sovereign store of value that individuals can hold in a protected fashion — that’s attractive all around the world.”

Allaire said he has no doubt that Bitcoin will survive the current downturn and will thrive over the long haul. “It’s certainly going to be worth a great deal more than it’s worth today,” he said. “I am long in the market.”

Update: Craig Wright predicts that bitcoin will disappear and be supplanted by bitcoin SV.

‘Bitcoin Will Disappear,’ Craig Wright Rants in Blistering ‘Satoshi’ Manifesto https://t.co/tMAMze7IMB — CCN.com (@CCNMarkets) May 25, 2019

Featured image from Shutterstock. Calvin Ayre portrait from LinkedIn.