Squire Mining Ltd., a listed issuer on the Canadian Stock Exchange, announced on Friday that is has entered an agreement to acquire crypto mining assets owned by CoinGeek and its affiliates, paving the way for the formation of the largest publicly-owned crypto mining operation in the world—henceforth known as CoinGeek Technologies Ltd.
Under the deal, Squire will take under its wing CoinGeek assets consisting of 62,440 ASIC mining rigs, representing an estimated 960,000 terahash/s or about 90MW of power consumption. These assets are operated by host providers across the United States, with 35,940 rigs, as well as Canada (6,000 rigs), and Kazakhstan (20,500 rigs). The crypto mining assets have an all-in weighted operational cost of US$0.073 per kilowatt hour.
The deal is valued at CAD$60.3 million (US$45.33 million), consisting of 114.8 million Squire common shares worth CAD$34.4 million (US$25.86 million) based on the Nov. 29 closing price of CAD$0.30 (US$0.23) per share. CoinGeek will also receive an unsecured vendor-take-back note worth CAD$25.8 million (US$19.4 million), which it can convert into additional Squire common shares. CoinGeek, for its part, has agreed to enter into a voluntary one-year lock up on the common shares it received.
As part of the agreement, Squire will be taking on CoinGeek’s employees and consultants who are involved with the management and operation of the assets, as well as the CoinGeek.com website and domain, along with all the marketing and advertising assets related to the CoinGeek name.
The Canadian company is also acquiring CoinGeek’s outstanding global distribution agreement for Squire’s ASIC chips and rigs. Earlier this year, Squire granted associates of CoinGeek the exclusive right to market, promote, solicit, sell and distribute Squire’s new ASIC chips and mining rigs to Bitcoin SV and other alt coin miners throughout the world.
Taras Kulyk, chief executive officer at Squire, said: “This transaction would provide Squire with a leading, recognized brand via the acquisition of the CoinGeek.com and CoinGeek name, but it would also make us the largest, publicly traded Bitcoin miner globally. It is expected to deliver significant shareholder value by enabling Squire to become vertically integrated with our growing chip design and manufacturing business, which we would seek to have commercial within 2019.”
“I believe the next phase of growth for this industry is upon us and that means massive scaling of the Bitcoin blockchain to accommodate the throughput needed for enterprises to make use of this technology. By vending my mining and CoinGeek branded assets into Squire, I would be doubling-down on my commitment to Bitcoin’s success. These assets would enable Squire Mining Ltd to compete at a global level to pave a path for enterprise usage of blockchain technology to flourish,” said Calvin Ayre, owner of the CoinGeek brand.
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“It’s time for Bitcoin to grow up”, said Jimmy Nyguyen in his opening remarks at the CoinGeek Week conference. That set the tone for the next three days and 30 or so presentations.
The hash war between Bitcoin ABC and SV had played out. It was fierce - and had changed the world for the combatants in just a couple of short weeks. But Jimmy, and Calvin Ayre, who introduced the conference, were confident that their team - including CoinGeek, nChain and SVPool - are now in a great place from which to build for the future around Bitcoin SV.
Since the conference was held just ahead of the tenth anniversary of the first transaction on the Bitcoin blockchain, the sense of growing up and moving on to the next chapter had an extra resonance. As to what the way forward would look like, Craig Wright came on stage later that morning and captured it in his first words: “OK, it’s really, really simple: we need transaction volume.”
During the rest of the conference at London’s Mermaid Theatre, the path to more transactions, of more kinds, was explained through a kaleidoscope of big visions and inspiring implementations that are already up and running.
One theme that jumped out was the sense that crypto is starting to work with the grain of the world as it exists - rather than trying to build a parallel universe. Just three examples: Elizabeth White announced a debit card that uses crypto and has Mastercard as a partner. Stephan Nilsson is building a supply chain ID system that works on the blockchain alongside SAP - a global data management giant.
And CentBee’s Angus Brown talked about how his wallet was part of a recent initiative with the (very real) bar chain Brewdog. Again, it was a question of working with the world as it is: “bank cards are not going away tomorrow,” said Angus. So CentBee “needs to feel like a payment card, but better.” The experience with giving people wallets to buy beer a few minutes later produced an “I get it” reaction: “it’s not Lambos, it’s just beer”.
That kind of ordinariness and familiarity is one of the aims of Ryan X. Charles’ Moneybutton. It’s designed to integrate with any online site, with an endless array of possible functions - starting with money. As Ryan put it, we’re “making payments as easy as the Facebook Like button”. Crucially, Moneybutton is “just an interface for you to use the power of the blockchain”. The end user sees money in the currency they’re familiar with - pounds, dollars or whatever. So if you want to leave a tip, you don’t need to know what it is in Bitcoin: that side of the transaction is all behind the scenes.
Talking of working with the real world, what could be more real that using the power of crypto mining to grow vegetables? Or drying, er, human waste to turn it into fuel. That’s what’s happening just outside Montreal, courtesy of BlockchainDomes. The idea is that the heat generated during the mining process shouldn’t be wasted. Is this the start of a green crypto movement?
Summing up at the end of day two, Jimmy Nyguyen reminded his audience that technical solutions are just part of the work in crypto. Alongside that, “a business-minded, real world approach is important”.
Embracing reality - that’s what crypto is doing today. Now please fasten your seatbelts for day three of the conference, whose theme is The Future.
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The CoinGeek Week conference is in full swing in London and all of those who are in attendance are experiencing an exciting chance to see what is going on with Bitcoin SV and the entire crypto ecosystem. There is a lot of activity on the agenda and a lot to discuss, but CoinGeek founder Calvin Ayre took a few minutes out of his schedule to sit down with Bitstocks, the UK’s first crypto market advisory firm, to discuss what is happening with Bitcoin SV and where things are headed.
In the podcast, which is available on YouTube, Ayre talks about how he began to dabble in cryptocurrencies in 2010, but didn’t get really involved until 2015 when he met Dr. Craig Wright. They shared a lot of the same opinions regarding what cryptocurrency is and what it can be, leading Ayre to jump in completely to help build the space.
As is the case with many, when it was obvious that Bitcoin Core (BTC) was veering off the original path of what cryptocurrency was meant to be, Ayre played a role in ensuring that the path was kept alive through Bitcoin Cash (BCH), the only cryptocurrency that maintained the original Satoshi Vision. He adds that cryptocurrency was already mature when it was created and didn’t need to be constantly tweaked, a premise that was designed to be followed with BCH.
Just as BCH was initially intended to keep cryptocurrency moving forward as a true peer-to-peer currency, once it became obvious that certain developers were once again intent on changing the business model, Bitcoin SV came about to ensure that the original cryptocurrency model would continue.
Ayre also points out the recent stress test of Bitcoin SV, which proved what many have been asserting all along – on-chain scaling not only works, but it works well. The stress test saw 1,500 transactions per second, which is higher than what has been seen with Segwit, Ethereum and Ripple combined.
Within a year, 8,000 transactions are anticipated by allowing blocks that are two gigabytes in size. As Ayre points out, Bitcoin SV is the “only trustless, decentralized public blockchain,” and this is what is going to help drive adoption. It’s obvious that the consumer market needs to be educated on the merits of cryptocurrency in general, but this is coming and this education will allow everyone to see why Bitcoin SV is the original Bitcoin.
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The one good thing that has come out of the recent so-called BCH hash war is that the original Bitcoin is back—now in the form of Bitcoin SV (Satoshi Vision).
Bitcoin SV is the only cryptocurrency with a blockchain that massively scales; it’s the only one that has utility value and the one that can do it all. At the CoinGeek Week Conference, taking place at The Mermaid at Puddle Dock in London, CoinGeek founder Calvin Ayre explains how BSV is set to take over and replace other non-scaling platforms, and then also grow utility value.
“I believe firmly that the business models of all the alternative coins, the ICOs and the digital gold and whatnot are actually not real business models and that they actually, it’s a bit of an illusion or a mirage that is being sold to people, and people who don’t understand how this stuff works are being sold a bill of goods. I think one positive outcome of the hash war is the fact that people were forced to focus on the technical choices in front of them, and I think a lot of people got educated on what the differences are,” he said. “The only one that’s got a sustainable business model, that can have growth and take enterprise investment is Bitcoin SV, which is the original Bitcoin. It’s the original economic model.”
The CoinGeek Week Conference is the perfect place to hear from thought leaders about the implications of the world’s first Bitcoin Hash War fought according to Nakamoto Consensus. The three-day conference, with a special invitation-only Miners Day kicking off the week’s events, is important for anyone already involved in crypto, as well as those looking to get started. As the only cryptocurrency that is being developed to truly serve as a digital currency, Bitcoin—now in Bitcoin SV—has the most potential to make a difference in the retail industry.
Ayre said, “This is about learning, but it’s also about planning. We’re getting a lot of thought leaders together here to plan how to move ahead to actually finally show what the power of the economic model is in Bitcoin. Because now the people that were kneecapping the business model aren’t here anymore so from that perspective, there’s a lot of euphoria about the opportunities and a lot of planning going around it, but it’s also a celebration of sorts. I mean, it’s the 10-year anniversary now of the birth of the original Bitcoin and it’s also ironically the rebirth birthday, so instead of having two birthdays like what we thought we had with BCH and BTC, we’re back to having one. And that one birthday is the birth of Bitcoin because Bitcoin SV is Bitcoin.”
There’s still time to secure your seat to the last day of CoinGeek Week, where a major announcement is about to be made. Don’t be stuck on the sidelines watching as history is made at CoinGeek Week Day 3, buy your tickets to the conference via Eventbrite today.
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Any time you feel forced to square off to defend yourself or something you value you always need to have an end game plan. For CoinGeek that end game was always making sure there was a version of the original Bitcoin still able to show off its original economic design genius to the world. Bitcoin was born with a mature economic model and platform developers have consistently tinkered it to death…first by forking to Segwit BTC and now ABC has pushed the technology off to their side chain view of the world. This is fine for them to test their thinking, but not by killing Bitcoin before it’s even been tested properly so we stepped in.
It is CoinGeek’s opinion that the two chains are now so far apart and have such divergent plans ahead that there is just no path back to joining them. We also no longer want the name Bitcoin Cash BCH as to us, Bitcoin SV is the original Bitcoin not the original Bitcoin Cash (whatever that even means). We understand that having nChain no longer fighting with them over roadmaps was the single most important issue to the ABC side. nChain tells me they are happy to leave ABC chain alone if they enact replay protection and do a permanent split. This is very convenient as the definition of winning is fundamentally different to each side so there is a win-win solution here.
From where CoinGeek sits right now, us permanently splitting the chains by ABC enacting replay protection will give both sides a WIN. Bitcoin will live on with Bitcoin SV and will finally have a chance to show off the true power of the original economic model. Similarly, ABC can join with the rest of the new chain/coin models to demonstrate what they believe they can do. The models can then all compete in the marketplace and this lets actual users vote with their actions.
I am confident that CoinGeek can enforce civility if the other side wants this in any permanent split. We believe this is in the best interests of all and call on all the exchanges and payment processors and others who have an interest in making this all go away to help us convince everyone to accept this solution so we can all focus on our visions for the future and get rid of this wasteful distraction.
I have instructed my team to start working with everyone to roll out the new Bitcoin SV coin. I hope this can be the end of this episode and look forward to the CoinGeek Week Conference next week being the launch party for the return of the original Bitcoin and all that this will enable. Look forward to seeing everyone there and especially discussing the future of the original Bitcoin.
Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (segwit) Chain are Referred to as BTC coins. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is today the only Bitcoin implementation that follows Satoshi Nakamoto’s original whitepaper for Peer to Peer Electronic Cash. Bitcoin BCH is the only major public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin as fast, frictionless, electronic cash.
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Last November 15, during the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network upgrade, a hash war has been fought with miners voting between two competing implementations of the BCH protocol—Bitcoin SV and Bitcoin ABC.
As expected, Bitcoin ABC took a temporary early lead, thanks to an artificial burst from “rented” hash power subsidized by Roger Ver’s Bitcoin.com, which announced that it would use pool customer hash from the Bitcoin Core (BTC) network onto the BCH chain for 24 hours, as well as from ABC’s main supporter Bitmain Technologies.
The hash war, however, isn’t far from over. Bitcoin SV’s strongest supporters, CoinGeek and nChain, is committed to a long term fight using their legitimate, sustained hash—long after Bitmain can no longer afford to bleed money for rented hash.
On November 17, nChain CEO Jimmy Nguyen appeared on Keyport’s live stream coverage of the Bitcoin BCH hash war to speak the truth, as well as explain to the BCH community the consequences of their willingness to accept a burst of rented hash to quickly decide the hash war. And to those who are out there on social media, cheering for the supposed ABC victory, Nguyen posed this question: Is this the precedent we want to set for the Bitcoin Cash community?
Read the full transcript of Jimmy Nguyen’s Keyport speech below.
TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES ABOUT THE ONGOING BITCOIN CASH HASH WAR
Jimmy Nguyen – CEO, nChain Group
Since the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network upgrade on November 15, a hash war has been fought with miners voting between Bitcoin SV and Bitcoin ABC – two competing implementations of the BCH protocol. nChain and CoinGeek support Bitcoin SV. As we fully expected, Bitcoin ABC appeared to take a temporary early lead by receiving an artificial burst from temporary, “rented” hash power subsidized by Roger Ver’s company Bitcoin.com, which announced it would move its pool customer hash from the rival Bitcoin Core (BTC) network onto the BCH blockchain for just 24 hours, and from ABC’s main supporter Bitmain Technologies.
Many observers have quick to prematurely call a win for Bitcoin ABC. But the hash war is not over. nChain and CoinGeek continue to fight, mining with our legitimate, sustained hash committed to support the Bitcoin Cash network and the Satoshi Vision. For days before the hard fork, Bitcoin SV had support from over 75% of the network hash.. Knowing they clearly did not have enough support to win, Bitcoin ABC’s backers had to rent and subsidize BTC hash to move onto BCH to use as voting power. When they can no longer to afford to pay massive daily amounts to rent hash for this BCH hash war, we will still be here fighting, and the consistent hash power supporting Bitcoin SV will overtake Bitcoin ABC. That is the inevitable result of this BCH hash war
On November 17, I appeared on Keyport’s live stream coverage of the BCH hash war to provide my views and a statement to the Bitcoin Cash community about “Truth and Consequences” of their willingness to accept a burst of rented hash to quickly decide the hash war. This is a transcript of my speech, edited for clarity.
I’m about to tell you truth and consequences. These are the truth and consequences for the Bitcoin Cash community of what’s happening in this hash war.
So the weekend went exactly as I expected. There was the fork on Thursday, November 15; there was a huge burst of hash that came into the network on the side of Bitcoin ABC that was rented or subsidised— probably from the BTC network, in order to artificially boost the support for Bitcoin ABC far higher than it had ever been in the days and weeks coming up to the hard fork.
Then the Bitcoin ABC supporters decided to declare early victory, because they seemed so far ahead in hash. Then they started going to the exchanges, if not even before the hard fork. (I think they did look before to try and get them to recognise their chain as Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
They added checkpoint—not a surprise, our developers heard about that a week ago.
So everything that happened is exactly as I predicted, and we’re continuing to plug away.
And people are probably wondering why we didn’t bring more hash in to support the Bitcoin SV side of the coin. Let me explain why. We actually had plenty of petahash offered to us; in fact, we actually didn’t have to go ask any miners or mining pools to lend us their hash.
Before and after the BCH Miners Choice Summit on November 2nd that CoinGeek sponsored and which I attended, we had a potential deal for thousands of petahash —to be rented and subsidised by us much like, I’m sure, Bitmain and Roger Ver were doing in some capacity or variation. While I was at that summit, we had thousands more petahash offered to us to rent, by people who just did not like Bitmain, opposed the Bitcoin ABC implementation, or wanted to support us for all kinds of reasons.
I could have walked away from that day with easily ten to fifteen thousand petahash worth of support for Bitcoin SV. And it’s not for lack of money or resources that we decided not to do it because Calvin Ayre, CoinGeek and nChain could have easily afforded to do that for as long as it took during this battle, and we would have blown the Bitcoin ABC side out of the water, at least compared to the hash that they have demonstrated so far in the charts you can see. But I actually had a realization at that moment in Hong Kong about whether that was the right thing to do; and I decided it was not, because of the consequences it would have in the future for the Bitcoin Cash community. And here’s what they are:
The whole reason that such hash was available on the BTC network to move onto BCH is because the people who should have fought Bitcoin Core did not, and splintered off to create the Bitcoin Cash network, and allowed BTC to continue on. That’s perfectly fine. But now they’re borrowing hash, renting it, subsidizing it from the very network they so vehemently oppose—many of them - to try and claim a victory on the BCH network.
I want you to think about the hypocrisy of that, because it’s staggering. I also want you to think about the game that is being played here, if you are able to just move hash for a day or two from the rival network that many of our community do not like, and use that to claim victory. What does it say about what you would do just to win what looks to many people right now like a sporting contest.
In addition, I want people to know that I thought long and hard about what should be the governing model to decide disagreement between rule sets for Bitcoin - because that’s what this is, that’s what’s really being tested in this moment right now. It’s not just about a particular feature set here or there. It’s about what should be the governing model when there are disagreements.
And think about this: when the Nakamoto Consensus was written in the Bitcoin white paper, there was supposed to only be one Bitcoin network. There was not supposed to be miners on a network running the same hash algorithm that you could pay to rent their hash to come in and vote in a disagreement over rule sets. Instead, the Bitcoin network as we know it, this whole system, it’s magic is in its economic incentives. Miners have incentives to provide the computing power and security of the network; they earn block rewards, they earn transaction fees, they have the investment and monetary interest therefore to make decisions on rule sets that best continue that economic incentive and the security of the network.
But if you are not mining on the network and don’t have your own investment in it, and you are not making money on this network but making it over on BTC, why is it that you should have a vote for the rule set for Bitcoin Cash, particularly when it is hash borrowed from the very network that Bitcoin Cash was designed to split off from?
So the Nakamoto Consensus is being tested for the first time right now, and I want you to really think about that. Obviously, Satoshi Nakamoto could not have envisioned, at the time the white paper was written, that there was going to be some splintered-off network using the same hash algorithm. And with the idea of one CPU equals one vote, or miner hash power equals the vote, it was designed—and I’m sure most logical people can agree with it—to recognise that the people who have an ongoing continuous invested interest in the network are the ones that should vote on a rule set.
But what has happened over this weekend is that the supporters of ABC have been so quick to come forward, and say, after a day or two of hash bursts provided by Roger Ver and his company Bitcoin.com’s move of hash from his customers from BTC over to BCH - and I’m sure move of BTC hash by Bitmain and other sources - after one or two days of bursts, they are so quick to declare, therefore they must be the winner.
But we took an alternate path. And as you can now probably understand why Craig Wright and Calvin Ayre have been so repeatedly vocal about the need for genuine and legitimate sustained hash that supports the network. We made the decision to fight with genuine honest hash. And that is why, if you notice, over the days leading up to the hard fork., the CoinGeek, SVPool, and BMG pools started gradually increasing the hash they were devoting to the network.
That was done for a reason. It wasn’t just an all-in burst to vote on the day of the hard fork. It was designed to demonstrate continued commitment to sustain this network and a desire to show the world we are going to continue using that hash on this network. It wasn’t a flash in the pan.
And so the situation that has unfolded this weekend is basically akin to saying: I want to have an election in the United States, and I don’t think I have enough votes, so I’m going to go pay people from Canada to come to the US for a day, vote, and leave—even those people who have no interest in the outcome of that election; it does not affect their lives, their livelihood, what pocket of money they get to pay their bills. That is what the people on the ABC side of the fence have just created: the idea that you can do that and that you can do that every time there’s a disagreement over the rule set.
So I really want people to think about what kind of system you want to decide consensus rule disagreements in the future for Bitcoin. Is it who can pay the most for one or two days to rent hash from a competing rival network that you escaped from? Or is it the votes of the miners who are ongoing providers of sustained hash, because they have an ongoing economic interest in the network?
And you saw the numbers in the days before the fork: it was clear the SV side of was demonstrating on a daily basis—for multiple days—far more than majority support from the network.
I believe that should be the governing model for Bitcoin consensus rule decisions. I also want everyone out there in the community to think about the consequences for the future. IF you are so quick to say that ABC should be declared the victor and awarded the BCH ticker symbol, and its consensus rules should govern, you’ve just walked into a bigger problematic box that I knew you would. Because I knew this would all happen; it’s all unfolded on Twitter and online. You’ve just provided the playbook for a big corporation with really big pockets, a state actor of government, anyone who could afford to pay for just one or two days of rented hash, to come over to the BCH network and get its rule set implemented.
Now that may not be nefarious; it could be Google, IBM, or Microsoft, who are very interested in blockchain technology, and they want to shape the Bitcoin Cash network with rules that favor their business model. This may be perfectly legitimate, and some people may support it. But I know many of you out there in the Bitcoin community would say: “well, wait a minute, I don’t want some big corporations just coming to pay, to take over the rule set of my network.” It would not cost that much —20 or 30 million dollars could have bought them a victory in a day or two according to what all the people screaming and cheering for ABC want to see happen.
A state actor could do that easily, that’s a drop in the bucket. And if you continue this path where you say “AHA!” after a day or two with bursts of hash that did not exist before and were just taken from the BTC network, if that is the way to determine the rule set, you have just set up the biggest vulnerability ever to the Bitcoin Cash network: for someone with a deep pocket to come in and implement whatever rule set they want.
And for those of you who aren’t a big fan of big corporations and government - you know who you are out there in the Bitcoin Cash community - I think you need to sit back and think: what have I just done? Because that’s what I thought, and this is exactly what I knew was going to happen. I sat there in Hong Kong, and I had all these offers of hash that we could have taken, and we could have used it to quickly win. But I had a moment where I had to say: I had a moment to say, is this the precedent we want to set for the Bitcoin Cash community? That anyone who has a deep pocket to pay for hash for a day or two, who doesn’t have to mine the day before - such as a government, a big corporation who could be a zero miner the day before - to just pay enough miners enough money on a hard-fork date to have enough hash to have its rule set take over?
That’s exactly the situation you are creating now for all of those who are out there on social media and online, cheering for a supposed ABC victory. That’s all you think it takes. But that’s not what it should be, and that’s not what it was envisioned to be at a time when the white paper was introduced to the world with the idea that there was just going to be a single Bitcoin network with a single network of miners who all had an economic incentive and interest to mine that network, and therefore make the best decisions for the viability and vibrancy of that network.
I’ll close by saying that that’s the truth I wanted the Bitcoin community to realise and the consequences of the path you’re trying to take. At nChain and on behalf of the CoinGeek people who are somewhere else, I want to say—and if it’s not clear already—we’re very committed with the SV project to really advance the Satoshi Vision. Obviously, some people have a different interpretation of it; that’s okay, but if there’s one thing we’ve been consistent about time and time again—we want the original Bitcoin. We want to see it grow to what it was meant to be. You can disagree with us about what feature set it should be, what block cap size, about anything else. But there is one thing we consistently work on, day in and day out. You don’t have to like Craig, but it’s very clear that is his mission and vision, and it’s ours as well. And that vision has to be enforced by a pure understanding of what Nakamoto Consensus should be: loads of miners who have an economic interest day in and day out—not people who can be mercenaries, who are rented to come in and allow anyone, any corporation or state actor, to take over your network.
To some people out there who are cheering for an ABC victory after a day or two: I want you to think long and hard about what you just did, if that’s the result you want. Because you’re not going to like it—the hypocrisy, I think, is staggering for where Bitcoin Cash came from. . . from Bitcoin Core.
So it’s time for this community to make a choice, to make a choice about how you want disagreements to be decided, and how you want to allow the ruleset for your chain to be governed.
I know what choice I’m going to make, and it’s a choice that supports the Satoshi Vision. I’m going to leave now, because I have a lot of work to do to support that vision.
Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (segwit) Chain are Referred to as BTC coins. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is today the only Bitcoin implementation that follows Satoshi Nakamoto’s original whitepaper for Peer to Peer Electronic Cash. Bitcoin BCH is the only major public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin as fast, frictionless, electronic cash.
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16 November 2018 - With the Bitcoin BCH network upgrade on November 15, a hash war has begun with miners voting between Bitcoin SV and Bitcoin ABC – two competing implementations of the BCH protocol. As fully expected, Bitcoin ABC appeared to take a temporary lead on the first day by receiving an artificial boost from temporary, “rented” hash power subsidized by Roger Ver’s organization Bitcoin.com, which announced it would use its pool customer hash on BCH for just 24 hours, and from ABC’s main supporter Bitmain Technologies, the Chinese manufacturer of crypto mining rigs. However, Bitcoin SV has strong support from CoinGeek, the largest BCH miner, and nChain, the leading blockchain research & development firm. CoinGeek and nChain have the resources to fight long term with their own sustained hash, long after Bitmain cannot afford to bleed money for rented hash. Therefore, the BCH hash war will not be decided in 1 or 2 days, but over many days and possibly weeks by on-going miner votes with sustained Proof of Work. Until a dominant chain emerges, cryptocurrency exchanges, wallet and service providers are advised to remain neutral, and to run a Bitcoin SV node to be prepared for the best interests of users.
CoinGeek founder Calvin Ayre expressed his determination to fight the BCH hash war as long as it takes:
“CoinGeek and nChain are in this battle for the long haul. We will mine BCH and fight as long as it takes to protect the original Bitcoin from Bitmain, Jihan Wu, and their Bitcoin ABC development group who all want to change BCH into some alt-coin Wormhole token technology. Roger Ver’s company Bitcoin.com is subsidizing hash for only 24 hours, taken from his own customers. As for Bitmain, to keep up with us in this hash war, Bitmain will have to spend millions of dollars a day from its investors’ money and shareholder assets, while also trying to raise more investor money for its shaky IPO. This will bleed Bitmain’s cash and cryptocurrency reserves, because we are prepared to fight for months and months. If I were a shareholder or investor in Bitmain, I’d be asking why Jihan Wu is spending all your money to control BCH when Bitmain’s business supports multiple cryptocurrencies.”
Bitcoin SV is the new full node implementation for Bitcoin Cash that seeks to restore the original “Satoshi Vision” for Bitcoin and allow it to massively scale. For the November 15 upgrade, Bitcoin SV’s feature set is not compatible with that of competing client Bitcoin ABC. When there is a disagreement between rule sets, the original Bitcoin white paper described the “Nakamoto consensus” method for miners to vote with their computing power (1 CPU = 1 vote) to enforce any rules: “The majority decision is represented by the longest chain, which has the greatest proof-of-work effort invested in it.”
The current hash war is the world’s first test of Nakamoto consensus. After the November 15 upgrade, Bitcoin ABC appeared to temporarily lead with a higher portion of the BCH network’s total hash power. But ABC’s perceived first-day advantage comes from a sudden burst of hash presumably rented from the Bitcoin Core (BTC) network to move over to BCH. By November 14, the day before the hard fork, Bitcoin SV’s support consistently grew for weeks and dominated with a clear 72-78% lead over ABC (18-22%):
Bitcoin ABC even dropped to tying for 3rd place with Bitcoin Unlimited, another implementation which is compatible (as a configurable option) with both Bitcoin SV and Bitcoin ABC rule sets.
Yet suddenly on the November 15 upgrade date, a huge wave of hash magically came to support Bitcoin ABC. This came from Bitcoin.com’s pool which announced it was boosting its BCH hash for only 24 hours, by moving customer hash from the BTC chain. In addition, Bitcoin ABC is receiving more support from “rented” or subsidized from BTC mining pools controlled by (Antpool.com, BTC.com, ViaBTC) or friendly (BTC.top) to Bitmain. To obtain rented hash, Bitmain must pay to subsidize the difference in lower revenue miners receive on the BCH chain when total hash rate grows, compared to mining on the more profitable BTC network. BTC.top’s CEO Jiang Zhuoer estimates this can cost over 100 million yuan or USD $14 million per day. The rented hash supporting Bitcoin ABC is temporary, and will leave the BCH network when not subsidized. This is a losing proposition for Bitmain; each day a hash war continues, Bitmain must pay millions of dollars to give Bitcoin ABC an artificial advantage. But when Bitmain can no longer afford to pay for it, the rented hash will leave BCH and Bitcoin SV will again dominate by virtue of its long-term, sustained hash support.
In contrast, Bitcoin SV’s support comes from CoinGeek and nChain’s BMG mining groups, which are 100% dedicated to support Bitcoin SV with their genuine hash. SVPool, a personal initiative of nChain Chief Scientist Craig Wright and the newly-formed Mempool also run Bitcoin SV; those pools gather miners supporting the Satoshi Vision and do not pay added subsidies to miners beyond the amount actually earned from participating in their pools.
Ayre explained why sustained hash power should decide:
“Bitcoin is about Proof of Work (PoW), not Proof of Rented Hash (PoRH). To decide which chain should be the true Bitcoin BCH, you should pick the longest chain with the most legitimate, sustained Proof of Work invested. It is ridiculous to count transient, rented hash which comes onto BCH artificially for short bursts of time because it is subsidized to do so, but then disappears and does not really sustain Proof of Work on the network. That is like paying a person to show up in a foreign country to vote in a political election, without meeting citizenship requirements to vote. At CoinGeek’s BCH Miners Choice Summit on November 2, we were offered thousands and thousands of petahash to rent for this battle. While we can afford to pay for more rented hash than Bitmain can, we decided to set a better precedent for Bitcoin and fight with honest hash invested to support BCH long term.”
Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (segwit) Chain are Referred to as BTC coins. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is today the only Bitcoin implementation that follows Satoshi Nakamoto’s original whitepaper for Peer to Peer Electronic Cash. Bitcoin BCH is the only major public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin as fast, frictionless, electronic cash.
The post Bitcoin BCH hash war will be decided by sustained – not temporary, rented - hash power appeared first on Coingeek.
2018年11月16日——随着11月15日比特币现金（BCH）网络升级，矿工们在Bitcoin SV和Bitcoin ABC（两个竞争的比特币现金协议实现方式）之间投票掀起了哈希算力大战。不出意料，Bitcoin ABC在第一天看起来取得了暂时领先，是因为它的人为推动是来自于Roger Ver的公司Bitcoin.com所补贴的临时“租赁”算力（其宣布将在比特币现金上使用其矿池客户算力仅24小时），以及来自于ABC的主要支持者中国加密货币矿机制造商比特大陆（Bitmain Technologies）。然而，Bitcoin SV得到了最大的比特币现金矿业巨头CoinGeek和领先的区块链技术研发公司nChain的大力支持。CoinGeek和nChain有足够的资源用他们自己的持续算力进行持久战，而Bitmain终将因租赁算力而资金枯竭。因此，BCH哈希算力大战不会在1、2天内决定，而是通过持续的工作量证明所进行的矿工投票在许多天甚至数周内决定。在主导链出现之前，建议加密货币交易所、钱包和服务供应商保持中立，并运行Bitcoin SV节点，以便为保护用户的最佳利益做好准备。
CoinGeek创始人卡尔文·艾尔（Calivin Ayre）表达了他将长期进行比特币现金哈希算力大战的决心：
“CoinGeek和nChain联手参与这场持久战。我们将挖掘比特币现金（BCH）并为原始的比特币而战，保护其免受比特大陆（Bitmain）、吴忌寒（Jihan Wu）以及他们的Bitcoin ABC开发组的影响，因为他们都想将比特币现金（BCH）改为某种代币的虫洞技术。Roger Ver的公司Bitcoin.com正在用取自他自己客户的算力进行补贴，而且仅维持24小时。至于比特大陆（Bitmain），为了跟上我们在这场哈希算力大战中的步伐，将不得不每天从投资者的资金和股东资产中花费数百万美元，同时还试图通过摇摇欲坠的IPO筹集更多的投资者资金。我们已为数月的战斗做好了准备，这将把比特大陆（Bitmain）现金流和加密货币储备拖到枯竭。如果我是比特大陆（Bitmain）的股东或投资人，我会问吴忌寒，如果比特大陆（Bitmain）的业务同时支持多种加密货币，为什么你要把所有的钱花在控制比特币现金（BCH）上。”
Bitcoin SV是全新的比特币现金全节点实现，旨在恢复原始的比特币“中本聪愿景”并允许其大规模扩容。对于11月15日的升级，Bitcoin SV的功能设定与竞争客户端Bitcoin ABC互不兼容。当规则集存在分歧时，最初的比特币白皮书描述了“中本聪共识”方法，指导矿工以其计算能力（1 CPU = 1票）投票来执行任何规则：“多数派决定应由最长的链来表示，因为有最大工作量证明投入其中。”
当前的哈希算力大战是世界上第一次对“中本聪共识”的考验。11月15日升级后，Bitcoin ABC看起来以略高份额的比特币现金网络总算力暂时领先。但ABC第一天的优势来自突然爆发的算力，据推测，其算力可能是从比特币核心钱包Bitcoin Core (BTC) 网络租用转移到比特币现金（BCH）。截至11月14日，也就是硬分叉的前一天，Bitcoin SV的支持持续增长了数周，并以72-78%遥遥领先ABC（18-22%）：
Bitcoin ABC甚至下降到与Bitcoin Unlimited竞争第三名。Bitcoin Unlimited是另一个实现方式，兼容Bitcoin SV及Bitcoin ABC双方规则集（作为一个可配置的选项）。
然而，就在11月15日升级当天，突然有一股支持Bitcoin ABC的哈希算力浪潮神奇出现。这是来自Bitcoin.com的矿池，该矿池宣布其在通过转移比特币（BTC）链上的客户算力来推升其比特币现金（BCH）算力，且仅持续24小时。此外，Bitcoin ABC正在收到的更多支持是来自比特币矿池（Antpool、BTC.com和ViaBTC）或与其关系密切的矿池（BTC.top）的“租赁”或补贴。为了租赁的算力，比特大陆（Bitmain）必须支付补贴收益差额，因为在总哈希算力增加时，与在比特币（BTC）网络上挖矿相比，矿工们在比特币现金（BCH）链上的收益较低。BTC.top的首席执行官江卓尔（Jiang Zhuoer）估计，这可能每天花费超过1亿元人民币或1400万美元。支持Bitcoin ABC的租用哈希算力是暂时的，并且在未获得补贴时将离开比特币现金（BCH）网络。对比特大陆（Bitmain）来说，这是一桩亏本生意；哈希算力大战每天都在继续，比特大陆（Bitmain）必须花费上百万美元为 Bitcoin ABC 创造优势。但当比特大陆（Bitmain）再也不能支付庞大的费用，租来的哈希算力将离开比特币现金（BCH），Bitcoin SV将再次凭借其长期、持续的哈希算力支持，重返主导地位。
相比之下，Bitcoin SV的支持来自CoinGeek和nChain的BMG挖矿团队，它们100％致力于用真正的算力支持Bitcoin SV。由nChain首席科学家克雷格·怀特（Craig Wright）个人倡议的SVPool及新建的Mempool也在运行Bitcoin SV；这些矿池将矿工汇聚起来支持中本聪愿景，并且不向矿工支付超出参与矿池实际收益的额外补贴。
艾尔解释了为什么应该要由持续的算力来决定：
“对比特币来说，考虑的是工作量证明（PoW）,而不是租赁哈希算力证明（PoRH）。为了决定哪个链应该是真正的比特币现金（BCH），人们应该选择最长的链，其拥有合法、持久的工作量证明。计算暂时、租用的哈希算力是非常荒谬的 ，其算力来自于短时间内对BCH的人为操作，因为他们可以得到补贴，但是他们最终都会消失，这并不能真正地维持网络上的工作量证明。这就像付钱给一个不符合公民身份要求的人，让他去外国参加政治选举投票。在11月2日CoinGeek的BCH矿工选择峰会上，有成千上万的petahash愿意为了这场战争供我们租用。虽然我们有能力租用比比特大陆（Bitmain）更多的哈希算力，我们还是决定树立一个更好的榜样，并用诚实的哈希算力作战来长远地支持比特币现金。”
Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (segwit) Chain are Referred to as BTC coins. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is today the only Bitcoin implementation that follows Satoshi Nakamoto’s original whitepaper for Peer to Peer Electronic Cash. Bitcoin BCH is the only major public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin as fast, frictionless, electronic cash.
The post 比特币现金（BCH）哈希算力大战将由持续的——非临时,也非租赁的算力决定 appeared first on Coingeek.
An appeal to exchanges, payment processors and wallet developers…
Bitcoin’s whitepaper redefined money as we know it; forever. We have a chance to do this properly and cleanly, or we make it messy. I have already stated publicly, that I will follow the ABC chain if ABC wins. This is my commitment in following the longest chain and remaining true to the consensus mechanism highlighted in the Bitcoin whitepaper.
Today, the vast majority of the BCH eco-system, including the ABC backing Bitcoin.com declare that BCH is Bitcoin as defined in the whitepaper. I don’t need to go over this in detail, but Eli Afram’s article on the value proposition of Bitcoin BCH sums up very well, the reasons it is important that we recognise this fact.
BCH is Bitcoin. And if Bitcoin as defined in the whitepaper is made valid by the longest chain, then this is the consensus mechanism that we at Coingeek abide by. It’s true however that there exists the argument that if the longest chain is valid, then shouldn’t BTC be Bitcoin? This argument surfaces frequently in attempts to discredit BCH. The answer here is very simple… BTC actively moved away from the whitepaper. Segwit coins for example do not at all match the description laid out in the Whitepaper. If BTC actively chose to ignore key elements of the whitepaper, then it makes sense that BTC itself is no longer bound by the definition of the whitepaper, and Nakamoto Consensus included.
Roger Ver of Bitcoin .com also once tweeted the following in his declaration of why BCH is Bitcoin and I unreservedly agree.
Being the chain originating from the genesis block with the highest accumulated proof of work is only one of the metrics that makes Bitcoin Bitcoin.
Edit and decide for yourself which has more Bitcoin-ness: https://t.co/lldt4n2W4C pic.twitter.com/FnZGye39cF— Roger Ver (@rogerkver) April 27, 2018
There is only one prominent BCH supporter that refuses to believe that BCH is Bitcoin, and that is Mr Bitmain himself.
America is not England. America is America. Bitcoin Cash is not Bitcoin. Bitcoin Cash is Bitcoin Cash.
— Jihan Wu (@JihanWu) August 19, 2017
There is a very big reason why Jihan, doesn’t want BCH to be Bitcoin. If it is Bitcoin, it becomes bound to the whitepaper. Being bound to the whitepaper means that he doesn’t get his sought after reduced block times, or the ability to subvert Nakamoto consensus.
Now I would like to invite exchanges, developer teams, and others to adhere to the very principle laid out in the founding paper, and the consensus mechanism that decides between rule sets. That is – the longest chain. For the eco-system to follow this rule means that we collectively gain a market driven consensus prescribed by majority hash. This is representative of a true market dynamic.
The alternative is, that we are forever at the helm of a dictator-developer model. We have seen how that experiment runs already… It resulted in a centralized coin with an off-chain driven agenda.
nChain have already voiced the intention to reorg a minority invalid chain. This isn’t an attack on BCH. Rather this will highlight the invalidity and insecurity of the a minority chain. It assures that the majority chain remains valid, and the clear winner.
If the eco-system remains true to the longest chain, then we have a market/miner driven response that is clean, and secure… In other words, there will be no tiny chain prone to an attack, and users funds remain safe.
Above all, it is important we recognise the difference between intermittent bursts of rented hash vs dedicated hash. Temporary hash, is just that – temporary. Eventually, dedicated hash will catch up. For this reason, there is no fixed timeline on how long this election will go, but I call on the eco-system to remain faithful to the fact that this can be a drawn out battle that may oscillate. A sudden change in chain lead after some time may not bode well to some exchanges, and its most important that we remain steadfast in our mission to find the clear winner. This is also why I have been advocating mining with dedicated hash. It is fair on users and the eco-system, and allows us all to find a winner, quickly.
Coingeek will continue to fight for a money that is usable by the whole world. And our aim is to see Bitcoin BCH as the leading money in the world. We hope you can join us in making this a reality.
Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (segwit) Chain are Referred to as BTC coins. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is today the only Bitcoin implementation that follows Satoshi Nakamoto’s original whitepaper for Peer to Peer Electronic Cash. Bitcoin BCH is the only major public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin as fast, frictionless, electronic cash.
The post Consensus: The Bitcoin Way appeared first on Coingeek.
Undoubtedly, one of the most important cryptocurrency conferences of this fall is rapidly approaching. CoinGeek Week will be held in just about two weeks and, due to requests from the mining community, a new day of events has been added especially for crypto miners.
On November 27, a special invitation-only event—the Miners Day—will be held in London. Following the completion of the Bitcoin BCH hard fork and a major stress test of the blockchain’s capabilities, this will be a unique opportunity to understand where the blockchain is headed and how the November events will impact the future.
Miner’s Day is open to the mining community by invitation only. There will be representatives present from the mining pools, software developers, equipment manufacturers and experts behind the latest mining innovations. If you would like to attend, contact CoinGeek.
Everyone is watching to see how the Bitcoin BCH hard fork goes in just a few days. Regardless of the outcome, Bitcoin BCH will continue to be the strong, leading digital currency that it is today. It continues to be embraced by the global retail industry on an exponential basis and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. The CoinGeek Week conference will be the perfect opportunity to get together with those involved in the hard fork in order to understand the current state of the blockchain and what’s in the pipeline.
Following Miner’s Day, November 28-30 are days dedicated to developers, merchants and the future. Apart from the intense learning experiences, there will also be a number of networking events, giving attendees the opportunity to make new alliances and expand their business interests. This is a golden opportunity that can’t be missed by anyone ready to embrace cryptocurrency.
The November 28-30 CoinGeek Week conference will be held at The Mermaid, Puddle Dock in London. Following the last day of activities, CoinGeek founder and Bitcoin BCH proponent Calvin Ayre will host one of his world-famous after parties for attendees who have made it to all the activities. It’s the perfect way to wrap up a perfect conference.
Tickets are on sale now, but space is running out quickly. You can purchase your ticket today using either Bitcoin BCH on the CoinGeek website or, if you prefer, with a credit card through Eventbrite. Don’t wait—register now and don’t just witness history—be a part of it.
Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (segwit) Chain are Referred to as BTC coins. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is today the only Bitcoin implementation that follows Satoshi Nakamoto’s original whitepaper for Peer to Peer Electronic Cash. Bitcoin BCH is the only major public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin as fast, frictionless, electronic cash.
The post Only 2 weeks remain to sign up for CoinGeek Week appeared first on Coingeek.
