TL;DR: The CoinSpice Show #3 is a bombshell interview with Amaury Séchet, lead developer for Bitcoin ABC, a main Bitcoin Cash (BCH) node implementation. Crypto corporate media has run with the narrative BCH was 51% attacked during its most recent scheduled upgrade of May 2019. Séchet is frank, candid about what happened, and goes into detail. What might shock viewers is his contention something like May’s upgrade issues could’ve been avoided if BCH had something akin to the Bitcoin Core (BTC) and Blockstream funding model. There’s decidedly more to his argument, and it’s nuanced, but the message is clear: BCH development needs consistent, dedicating resources. Executive Editor Hayden Otto and developer Corentin Mercier host an important discussion about BCH’s future. Don’t miss this.

Bitcoin ABC’s Amaury Séchet Addresses BCH’s Future

CoinSpice at its root is a public discussion of peer-to-peer, borderless, uncensorable digital cash. It’s the place investors, enthusiasts, developers, merchants all gather to share information and attempt to move ideas forward. Amaury Séchet has been deeply involved in those ideas for going-on at least two years straight. He was there at the creation of BCH, and when credit is given or blame is attributed, his skin is very much in the game as lead dev for Bitcoin ABC.

Séchet and the lads first address what he considers the foundational problem for BCH going forward, lack of infrastructure and protocol development funding. How is that to be accomplished? Rather than dismiss and hate on the BTC-Blockstream model, Séchet points to it as something from which the BCH community can learn, both good and bad. For all its perceived ills, developers are not lacking for resources. The dangers are, of course, obvious: just look at Blockstream’s latest project, Liquid — it directly benefits from the politics of its public position on block size increases, for example.

That’s not something the BCH community would entertain, and for good reason. Instead, Séchet encourages something like a Linux Foundation model, where the goal is based on certain principles and those companies benefitting from the value proposition of those principles fund it enthusiastically. At the 29 minute mark, Séchet, Otto, and Mercier also address the BCH May upgrade exploit (a result of code debt, technical debt which Séchet described earlier) and reclaiming of coins characterized by crypto corporate media as a 51% attack.

In the first instance, an exploiter took credit, hoping to draw maximum attention to their pet concern. Some in the community have called this action out, warning that exploiting a bug doesn’t help anyone. In the supposed 51% attack, air is cleared about what constitutes an attack. Honest miners protecting their investment and a Segwit soft fork, for example, are contrasted against real 51% attacks — the key word being, attack. For those media outlets hoping to cast doubt on a project they already dislike or view as a threat, failure to make those careful distinctions can be all the difference. Séchet uses the opportunity to encourage the BCH community to stop obsessing over the ills of BTC, and to instead concentrate on its own problems, helping it to bring P2P digital cash to the world.

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

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