TL;DR: Naomi Brockwell moderated a Bitcoin panel discussion and debate at this year’s annual outdoor libertarian gathering, PorcFest, in New Hampshire. BTC maximalist Tone Vays, CoinText founder Vin Armani, cyber-security expert Yury Polozov, OpenBazaar developer Chris Pacia, and AIER Editorial Director Jeffrey Tucker offered their respective views on cryptocurrency’s future.

Bitcoin Panel: Vays, Armani, Tucker, Pacia, Brockwell Debate Crypto’s Future



For the most part, The Next Ten Years of Bitcoin panel at the outdoor camping libertarian event was quite civil. A relatively diverse group of thinkers were assembled to shake out cryptocurrency’s future, and the peer-to-peer electronic cash position was well represented with the likes of Armani, Pacia, and Tucker.

Vays could be counted as the lone BTC maximalist, and pronounced himself satisfied with where the ecosystem was at. He did lament a lack of unity, but basically said BTC is doing fine. That began a debate about merchant acceptance and overall adoption, and Vays eventually admitted to having that early goal around 2014 but tired of it as few people actually held bitcoin much less spent it back then. He elaborated on how his thinking had evolved into considering the quality of merchants accepting BTC as being paramount: he will not do business with them unless they hold BTC and refuse to sell it for fiat.

Pacia remarked he was glad to hear Vays even talking about adoption and merchants and a bitcoin economy, as nearly all maximalists have taken a hodl stance, viewing BTC as merely a speculative asset. He hoped Vays would speak more on that topic to his followers and fellow maxi community members. Pacia found nuance where Vays saw only black and white. Merchants can be a bridge into adoption, and as acceptance of cryptocurrencies increases still more businesses will abide. Before too long, Vays’ hoped-for scenario might come about, but first a merchant’s ability to get out of, say, BTC and into fiat is simply a reality.

Vays Eager to Spend His BTC

At an earlier point in the panel discussion, Tucker half-jokingly summarized Vays’ and maximalists’ ultimate take on every issue: BTC is the only way, and everything else is garbage. Tucker then announced Vays would have little else to add. Interestingly, Vays did say something unexpected. He stressed BTC was going up too fast in price, and was therefor itching to spend it quickly on upgrading computer equipment, for example.

Sparks began to fly when at about the 55-minute mark, Pacia described the opportunity for other coins, such as Bitcoin Cash (BCH), to one day overtake BTC due to BCH’s superior utility. Pacia believed the BTC price overlooked its actual market share, and how the difference between BTC used as a medium of exchange over that of other coins isn’t much. Vays took exception, calling it a “ridiculous statement” several times. In fact, Vays claimed 99 percent of cryptocurrency transactions were in BTC, to which Armani offered a clarification — those are exchange trade transactions, not medium of exchange (Pacia’s point) purchases and so forth.

Vays dismissed Armani out of hand, describing his own view as a cold, hard “reality.” Armani asked how Vays would be able to determine, distinguish BTC transactions as a medium of exchange versus trade. Vays relied on his experience in the ecosystem, to which Armani explained he had more experience than Vays, actually — and that seemed to end the back-and-forth between them for a moment. Tucker took the break to get philosophical, suggesting humanity really hasn’t discovered what money is just yet … that it’s changing all the time.

What was clear is how locked-in Vays was to his way of thinking. No room, at all, was available for subtlety or charity toward other points of view, regardless of validity. On his personal channel, Vays later insisted his bulldog front was indeed an affect, and he was determined to be hostile for public show against “shitcoiners.” This might explain the difference in approach — most panelists were keen to see cryptocurrency adopted and used, and were concerned about how to get there. Vays simply was not. At about 1:18:00-minute mark, during the question and answer session, Vays tangent-ed into a line he’d been evidently waiting to deliver. “I think I would rather hold the Venezuelan currency longer than I would hold an altcoin,” he quipped. “To me, they’re about the same. They’re going to go down to zero, and they’re all the same,” Vays demanded, essentially vindicating Tucker’s earlier characterization of his arguments.

DISCLOSURE: The author holds cryptocurrency as part of his financial portfolio, including BCH.

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