Roger Ver Tells Disgruntled Bitcoin Cash Faction to Buy Dash

Mike Dalton

Aug. 19, 2020

Supporters of the Bitcoin Cash Infrastructure Funding Plan should support Dash instead, said Roger Ver.

Interview with Roger Ver "Why do I mine BTC?" on Bitcoin.com - Official

Key Takeaways

Bitcoin Cash's Infrastructure Funding Plan (IFP) plans redistribute funding from miners to BCH developers
The idea is very controversial; BCH leader Roger Ver and many other community members oppose the plan
Despite opposition, there is some demand for the feature and it is awaiting activation in Bitcoin Cash's node software

Bitcoin Cash leader Roger Ver has suggested that disgruntled developers should sell their BCH holdings and buy Dash in light of an upcoming change to the blockchain.

“There is already a peer to peer electronic cash cash coin with IFP. It’s called DASH. I suggest IFP supporters sell their BCH for DASH, and start working on that chain, said Roger Ver.”

His comments concern Bitcoin Cash’s Infrastructure Funding Plan (IFP), a hotly-debated addition that may arrive in November.

Dash versus Bitcoin Cash

IFP, in its current form, will direct 8% of block rewards to developers. This fund will, in turn, deprive BCH miners of income. It’s not clear if Ver’s endorsement of Dash is serious or sarcastic. However, his point is clear: Dash uses a funding model that is similar to the one advocated by IFP proponents in the Bitcoin Cash community. That is, Dash allocates some of its mining rewards toward developers through a set of programmed rules.

One commenter noted that Dash’s approach is more rigorous than IFP because Dash developers must be approved by masternode operators before they receive funds. Ver replied that this “sounds a lot better” than the IFP proposal.

November Is Approaching

The Bitcoin Cash community has been divided over IFP since February. The proposal has been brought up and dropped multiple times, but it has ultimately reentered the spotlight as the blockchain’s November upgrade approaches.

This week, Bitcoin ABC added IFP to the latest release of their Bitcoin Cash node software. More controversially, ABC listed the same feature on bitcoincash.org—something that ABC arguably has no right to do given that there are competing nodes that oppose IFP.

Support for IFP has come mainly from the Chinese mining community, where the idea is much less controversial. Their support means that the feature has already been built into future upgrades, but it will ultimately be up to miners to activate IFP this November.

Will BCH Split Again?

There is plenty of debate about whether the disagreement will cause the project to split into two coins in November. If there is a fork, the event would be seen as a repeat of 2018, when disagreements over block sizes caused Bitcoin SV to fork away from Bitcoin Cash.

Even if Bitcoin Cash does split, it is not clear how that event will be perceived: it could devastate Bitcoin Cash’s reputation, or it could prove that Bitcoin Cash is strong enough to withstand multiple splits.

Recent discussions suggest that developers intend to reach a compromise. In that case, dissatisfied miners and developers may simply leave the Bitcoin Cash community and support another coin.

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