McAfee at Shape The Future; “Pandora’s box has been opened”

“Pandora’s box has been opened.”

John McAfees’ words echoed through the halls of the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong. The several hundreds of us that had gathered together on the 20th September were hanging on to his every word.

Also read: Bitcoin Software Wars: Discussions Heat Up as November Hard Fork Approaches

McAfee had perfectly captured the crypto enthusiasts’ sentiment. Blockchain technology has begun to erode governments’ control over money and will continue to do so. These governments has responded by lashing out in a form of crypto inquisition that parallels the American prohibition. We also learned that many bitcoin exchange executives were not allowed to leave China amidst the recent regulation rulings. Surprisingly, McAfee’s comments did not encourage fear, but inspired a strong sense of community among the crowd. He walked off the stage to a thunderous applause.

Insight Into an Alternative View

Shape the Future also provided insights into an alternative view of Bitcoin not shaped by the mainstream r/bitcoin pages at Reddit. Both Jihan Wu and Roger Ver shared the view that the mainstream bitcoin media has been censoring any views that opposes that of bitcoin core and blockstream. Both speeches revolved around the strength of the larger block sizes in Bitcoin cash which makes it better for scaling. Lastly, they believed that the cryptomarkets were highly competitive and that the main reason why bitcoin had been losing market share to altcoins was because of the high transaction fees combined with the slow confirmation times for bitcoin transfers.

Things got really heated during Roger Ver’s speech, especially when someone in the audience shouted that Roger was wrong and that the lightning network would solve slow transaction speed and high fees. Roger responded by telling him not to use Bitcoin Cash if he didn’t like it.

Betting Offer On Bitcoin Cash

During the round table discussion there was a bitcoin cash vs bitcoin core debate. The debate escalated to the point where Bitcoin Cash was compared to dogecoin and that it would be doomed to fail. Roger Ver responded by betting 1 million dollars that Bitcoin Cash would still be around in two years. It was an offer the other participants did not appear keen on accepting.

At the end of the event, they showcased an informative and exciting documentary on the 9 year development of Bitcoin and China’s role in the industry. Here’s a link to the trailer.

What do you think about the future of bitcoin cash vs ”bitcoin core”? Let us know in the comment section below!

Images courtesy of Marcel Chou, Patrice Poujol

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