On the 10th anniversary of Bitcoin’s white paper, “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”, written by Satoshi Nakamoto, the World Economic Forum (WEF) published an article claiming that there is “only one existing blockchain that is consistent with Nakamoto’s vision: Bitcoin Cash.”

The WEF, Geneva-based not-for-profit independent foundation established in 1971, calls itself “the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation.” It is perhaps best known for its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

The article published on 31 October 2018 on the WEF website is titled “Bitcoin is 10 years old: This is how it began and where it's headed” and is written by Dr. Jack Rogers, a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Exeter in the UK. The WEF pointed out that this article had been “published in collaboration with” The Conversation, a Melbourne-based media outlet.

This is the tweet the WEF sent out to its 3.31 million followers on November 4th to promote the article:

Bitcoin is 10 years old: This is how it began and where it's headed https://t.co/QAaPWPcOnw #economics pic.twitter.com/sUYi8EKytR — World Economic Forum (@wef) November 4, 2018

The most interesting part of the article is the following paragraph, which appears to be saying that BCH is the real Bitcoin since it is the cryptocurrency that is most closely aligned with Nakamoto’s vision as laid out in the white paper:

“There is, however, only one existing blockchain that is consistent with Nakamoto’s vision: Bitcoin Cash, a so-called “hard-fork” of Bitcoin that generally shares the same history and protocol, except for two crucial details. The blocks on its chain are a massive 32-times larger than the original Bitcoin, and growing. More transactions per block, means lower fees per transaction, paving the way for global adoption. Plus, built-in codes that were switched off in the original Bitcoin, have been reignited, potentially allowing all the smart contract capabilities of Ethereum.”

Since the majority of the people in the crypto space do not seem to share this view and the article does not even mention BTC, it looks like the WEF does not know the full history of Bitcoin and the August 2017 hard fork that resulted in the creation of BCH. Although the article is not marked “op-ed”, It is worth noting that the WEF has a disclaimer at the bottom of the article that says:

“The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.”

Naturally, BTC fans in Crypto-Twitter are quite shocked by the WEF’s publication of this pro-BCH article. Here are a few of the reactions:

Umm, no. Bitcoin Cash is a fork of Bitcoin. You got tricked into shilling an altcoin — Alan Silbert (@alansilbert) November 4, 2018

“There is, however, only one existing blockchain that is consistent with Nakamoto’s vision: Bitcoin Cash.”@wef, delete your account https://t.co/g8dFMSq725 — Preston Byrne (@prestonjbyrne) November 4, 2018

The just re-published from here: https://t.co/6D8c4Qc8Yq

… under the assumption that an 'academic' would know what they're writing about — Alistair Milne (@alistairmilne) November 4, 2018

Article was written by Dr Jack Rodgers. Guess who visited him a few months ago? https://t.co/o26Eq4V27H — Mike V (@Mike__V_) November 4, 2018

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