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It Only Took 37 Seconds For Two Bitcoin 'Celebs' To Start Fighting on a Cruise Ship (mashable.com)

Posted by msmash on from the not-the-onion dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: The cruise ship wasn't big enough for the both of them. On September 10, somewhere in the Mediterranean, two well-known rivals -- Jimmy Song, a venture partner at Blockchain Capital LLC and Roger Keith Ver, an early investor in bitcoin-related startups and Bitcoin Cash evangelist -- in the cryptocurrency space stood awkwardly poolside. A crowd, sporting a mix of cryptocurrency-themed t-shirts and bikinis, lounged nearby on the ship's upper deck. One man, sweatpants sloshing in the water, steadied a tripod. The Bitcoin versus Bitcoin Cash debate was about to begin. It only took 37 seconds to spiral out of control.

It was perhaps to be expected that the debate wouldn't go smoothly, but just how quickly it went off the rails surprised even those in attendance. Song, cowboy hat atop his head and microphone in hand, attempted to introduce the format of the event -- a "Lincoln-Douglas style debate" -- but was soon interrupted by Ver. Shouts of "no Roger" emanated from the crowd, as Ver told the audience to "calm down." It quickly spun out from there, with Song repeatedly telling Ver to "sit down" as Ver angled for the microphone. "Do you want to debate me or not," Song demanded. "OK then sit down," he repeated as he stood behind the podium. Bickering over whether or not Ver would get a one-minute introduction before the official start of the debate continued on, with Song addressing the crowd and Ver shouting at the top of his lungs. They heatedly yelled over each other as the crowd jeered. Three minutes had passed, and things were not going well. And then someone handed Ver a mic. You better believe Song wasn't having that, and so he stormed offstage saying he was "refusing to do the debate." Finally with the stage all to himself, Ver attempted to speak but was immediately shouted down by an angry, shirtless man yelling from the pool. And that's all just the first five minutes. The video is over 40 minutes long.

45 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. Who are we to judge? by viperidaenz · · Score: 2

    If Jimmy Song and Roger Keith Ver want to wear cryptocurrency themed bikinis, who are we to judge them?

    1. Re:Who are we to judge? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      According to Contributor's Covenant, we're not allowed to anymore anyway. Isn't that how Linus Torvalds got in trouble?

      Linus was blackmailed. It'll come out soon enough.

    2. Re: Who are we to judge? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      [citation needed]

    3. Re:Who are we to judge? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      In my judgement, Bitcoin Cash BCH is still the better coin to date and suitable for continuing commercial use over near term 1-3 year future... low fees, fast, decentralized... that's a good set.
      BCH is closest to the original whitepaper, AND since all coins naturally evolve after their first release, BCH is properly exploring and taking a less complex, simple and natural path to scalability.

      Whereas Bitcoin Core BTC is developing all sorts of crazy new protocols to try to scale.
      Crazy new protocols and sidecoins are in fact fine, but ONLY if other simpler means have been exhausted first. That hasn't happened yet.

      The simple fact is that the formerly anarchic voluntary libertarian BTC of old has sold themselves out to centralized sidecoin forces for profit and control. That's what lightning is. And that's what humans do when they are unable to hold themselves to higher philosophies of non control. That's bad and BTC will thus die a slow death as people migrate to more free choices.

      BCH did the simplest first and obvious evolution of raising the blocksize, duhr.
      And I'm looking forward to what other distributed decentralized scaling mechanisms they come up with.

      However long term, 5+ years out... for ANY coin to succeed, it will need to not only be fully decentralized and free from control, fast to within a few minutes or less, with fees at or below credit card levels.... but ALSO fully cryptographically encrypted and privacy coins using the likes of Zero Knowledge Proofs. Because right now nearly ALL coins are completely non-financially private and open to all controls and dataminers... that's a terrible loss from even fiat cash.

      ZKP strong cryptographically private coins like Zcash ZEC, Zencash ZEN, Bitcoin Private BTCP, etc are the ONLY option for the coming cryptocurrency clash with fiat. If you don't have the choice to keep your transactions private, you're going to be monitored, reported, taxed and blocked off the net straight back to fiat stone age.

      ps: Monero XMR is not a cryptographically strong privacy coin, it just got shilled into the darkweb market scene by Anti Forces and was thus *believed* to be private and non analyzable by the drug addled retards therein. Monero is nowhere near as strongly private as ZKP is, for example ZEC. Monero also cannot scale due to requiring tons of space just to perform its false privacy claims.

    4. Re:Who are we to judge? by TheSimkin · · Score: 1

      How much did you get paid to publish this garbage? You realize this diatribe only works on the uneducated right? With the slashdot crowd you are wasting your time.

    5. Re:Who are we to judge? by xQx · · Score: 1

      Except that Litecoin does everything BCash does, did it before BCash forked for profit, does it without trying to appropriate the "Bitcoin" name, and can survive without trying to trick people into buying it when they actually want Bitcoin.

      And Zcash is all well and good, but privacy is OPTIONAL; and while it may or may not be cryptographically superior to XMR, the fact that private transactions stand out on the blockchain like dogs balls make them far easier to trace on ingress and egress.

    6. Re: Who are we to judge? by jd · · Score: 2

      The covenant only says you have to judge code by the code and not by the contributor.

      Not sure why anyone has a problem with that, beyond people seemingly wanting to have problems and not RTFMing.

      Same goes for the "debate" described. Attitudes that focus on having problems with others.

      This four digit UID has used Linux since 0.1 and 386BSD before that. I do not recall any antagonism towards a meritocracy in the USENET days. Maybe I'm too old for this. In my day, it was all about the code and the belief in the freedom of sharing. The covenant simply enforces what we, the free/libre/open source contributors hold to be true. It's no more onorous than the GPL.

      But too many today think they know better. Maybe they do. They can prove it by founding their own communities. Parasites prove nothing.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    7. Re:Who are we to judge? by Cmdln+Daco · · Score: 1

      "Use your student loan money to buy MY favored 'coin' not those other ones!"

    8. Re:Who are we to judge? by xQx · · Score: 1

      So stop proving stupid and enhance your thinking before going around blathering "optional" and "bcash" like all the other retards, shills, and Anti's here.

      Okay, if you read the reports on the "insecurities" surrounding XMR, you'll find they all refer to the early days of the coin when it had a much smaller transaction pool to draw from, and in fact had optional privacy. Obviously I disagree with you, so I must be a shill.

      Do me a favor, get whatever you can and throw it into Bcash and Bitcoin Private ... both are on SALE now. Though, if you're worried about who's controlling Bitcoin Core, you might want to do some cursory research into the relationship between Bcash and Bitman.

      The market will sort you out eventually.

    9. Re:Who are we to judge? by sg_oneill · · Score: 1

      Wasn't this ESR's bizaro paranoid claim that eeeeeebil SJWs would form some sort of weird left wing conspiracy to blackmail Linus Torvalds for, uh no reason.

      --
      Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
    10. Re:Who are we to judge? by slashways · · Score: 1

      BCASH is just useless; It was just hard forked to get something still compatible with the ASICBoost trick used by BITMAIN; We know now that BITMAIN own 10000000 BCASH, this coin will just crash if BITMAIN is out of money. BITCOIN (BTC) is the store of value, ZEC is not, it was just released for the people controlling the code to get a 20% tax on the mining operation. I don't understand why Jimmy Song waste his time debating with Roger Ver. All theses 'alts' are just scams for most of them or useless for the fair ones. The book 'The Bitcoin Standard' is the good one to get a good economic perspective. BCASH holders definitively miss something, and at 6.8% of the BTC value, this coin look more and more as a Titanic.

    11. Re:Who are we to judge? by sleepghost · · Score: 1

      Indeed BCASH is just worthless; Bad development choices e.g. non secure 0-confirmation and so on... Empty big blocks...

  2. pathetic by mr_resident · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, hand your money over to guys like that. Excellent financial planning.

  3. Ah, the lovers of the Dunning-Krugerrands... by cunina · · Score: 4, Funny

    Their antics never fail to entertain.

    1. Re:Ah, the lovers of the Dunning-Krugerrands... by Calydor · · Score: 1

      I haven't watched the video, but the summary reads like a Jerry Springer episode.

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    2. Re:Ah, the lovers of the Dunning-Krugerrands... by sysrammer · · Score: 1

      "Dunning-Krugerrands"

      Hmm...I have an idea for a new cypto.

      --
      His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
  4. Just in time! by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

    If you look at the realtime prices, you'll see that that both bitcoin and bitcoin cash are crashing again. Cryptocurrency has been on a downward trend since it peaked last December. Buying any of it is just throwing money away.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:Just in time! by TheSimkin · · Score: 1

      Bitcoin has been holding it's price for months, not crashing. 6k or more since October 2017. Bcash is dropping very fast though.

  5. Spoiled brat by leroybrown · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm avoiding cryptocurrency because I don't understand anything more than the basics but the guy in the baseball cap comes across like a spoiled brat, constantly name-dropping economists, brags about how many economics books he's read, and argues based on anecdotes and emotions instead of logic.

    --
    Founder, Americans Allied Against Alliteration
    1. Re: Spoiled brat by jd · · Score: 2

      Trust me, none of those you've listenable studied worth a damn and theirs is not the better way. They boast, brag and then rob you blind. If you genuinely want a better way, ignore those offering it. Look for the quiet ones who get the job done. If you need to advertise, you have failed.

      Linux was spread by word of mouth, because it worked. That is how you know it was a good solution.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    2. Re:Spoiled brat by quantaman · · Score: 2

      I'm avoiding cryptocurrency because I don't understand anything more than the basics but the guy in the baseball cap comes across like a spoiled brat, constantly name-dropping economists, brags about how many economics books he's read, and argues based on anecdotes and emotions instead of logic.

      I've been skeptical of the long term viability for a while but this debate really sealed the deal for me.

      One of the people arguing for Bitcoin was again one of the big names in the community, and he was generally nutty and incoherent. I don't know if he was always that unhinged or if he'd been living inside the bubble for too long, but it was clear that at the highest levels the Bitcoin community isn't able to filter the crazy out. And when a community can't get the crazy out at the top level then the foundations are probably not that stable either.

      --
      I stole this Sig
    3. Re:Spoiled brat by leroybrown · · Score: 1

      Wow, that's just a lot of hand-waving and "we must fight the global elites!" Ugh, no thanks. The pro side seems to be just salesmen.

      --
      Founder, Americans Allied Against Alliteration
    4. Re:Spoiled brat by cthulhu11 · · Score: 1

      Are you talking about bitcoin, or the White House?

  6. It's simple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Bitcoin Cash actually is better than Bitcoin. When the network gets all clogged up Bitcoin Cash performs a LOT better. Like no comparison. But there are a LOT of coins better than Bitcoin in this respect anyway.

    The thing is, most of the value/money in the system of cryptocurrencies is tied up in regular old Bitcoin and these people don't want to see that go away and I doubt it ever will. It also seems the group controlling the Bitcoin protocol don't want to see it change. They LIKE when the network gets all clogged up because fees skyrocket and they make money. Seems like a bit of a conflict of interest there.

    1. Re: It's simple by jd · · Score: 1

      At least Anthrax produces music.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  7. Well done to all involved by DrXym · · Score: 1

    Your heroes are jackasses and you only had to pay a small fortune to be on some shitty cruise in their presence to find out for yourself.

    1. Re:Well done to all involved by martinX · · Score: 1

      Did they get you to trade
      Your heroes for ghosts?
      Hot ashes for trees?
      Hot air for a cool breeze?
      Cold comfort for change?
      Did you exchange
      A walk on part in the war
      For a lead role in a cage?

      --
      When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
  8. Re: Wow, amazing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The dollar and euro are just as imaginative as the crypto currencies. There is nothing backing their value other then then a very basic system of trust, which works fine until you need a wheel barrow to buy a bread.

  9. Wrong order by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 1

    You should never go on a cruise to get financial planning advice: you go on the cruise after the financial planning advice you got from somewhere reputable pays off.

    1. Re:Wrong order by lactose99 · · Score: 1

      Bzzt. Incorrect. You go on cruise ships to kill a wealthy patron and steal his or her identity.

      --
      Fully licensed blockchain psychiatrist
  10. Re: Wow, amazing by DRJlaw · · Score: 2

    There is nothing backing their value other then then a very basic system of trust...

    where, backed by police forces, their collective units of government require that 25-50% of the value of their GDP be transferred to them in that currency.

    Yes, my friend, 25-50% of the entire productive capacity of hundreds of millions of people is something.

    which works fine until you need a wheel barrow to buy a bread.

    Any system can be screwed up, but only the government can take your wheel barrow. And that is the fundamental difference between a government-backed currency and cryptocurrency.

  11. Tulip farmers in fisticuffs, film at 11 by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    See, this is why they are normally kept in steerage, especially during South Seas voyages.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  12. Well then! by Smidge204 · · Score: 1

    It seems that they're both about as stable as their favorite cryptocurrency. Kind of poetic, really...

    =Smidge=

  13. Not really by jd · · Score: 1

    I've seen tempers flare at Doctor Who conventions. If you like, imaginary currencies of imaginary races on imaginary worlds.

    Humans have not evolved that much from their common ancestor with chimps, although we're capable of doing so if we like.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  14. Re: Man overboard by jd · · Score: 2

    I dunno, maybe the ship changes size if you solve a complex maths problem.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  15. Re: Man overboard by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

    I dunno, maybe the ship changes size if you solve a complex maths problem.

    That's a possibility. But I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around the idea that some poor tech-bro is going to use one of his two vacation weeks a year to go on a cruise, where he's going to attend lectures on crypto-currency instead of drinking and relaxing in the sun and having unprotected sex with desperate divorcees.

    What's happened to the world?

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  16. Re: Wow, amazing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The dollar and euro are just as imaginative as the crypto currencies. There is nothing backing their value other then then a very basic system of trust, which works fine until you need a wheel barrow to buy a bread.

    And keep in mind that a gold brick is equally useless. Diamonds are losing considerable value as this generation doesn't care for them at all, even for engagement rings. Anyone who hoped they could resell their diamonds are taking a wash because no one under thirty will ever buy them. "Want to buy these diamonds?" sounds like "Want to buy this cat poop?" to kids these days.
    Don't keep your money in just gold, or just dollars, or just cryptos, just the bank, or even just cattle. Diversify between hard and liquid assets, but make sure the assets have long term use.

  17. Re:And .... the AC's have it ! by supremebob · · Score: 1

    So, wait... the fat guy in the swim trunks is Anonymous Coward? I don't think that we've ever had a sighting of him in person before :)

  18. Needs a David Attenborough narration by Cito · · Score: 1, Funny

    "here we see liberals in the wild as the omega fight over who will be the next beta..."

  19. PR coup by Tom · · Score: 1

    I watched 2 minutes of that and it seems very clear to me that it's a staged act. And look, it worked, it got those two clowns free publicity!

    --
    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
  20. Bitcoin Fight by JameyForester · · Score: 1

    Haha! These guys just fought because they argued of Bitcoin future prices : D Besides, I wonder do such guys use special wallets for bitcoin https://bitcoinbestbuy.com/wal..., or they save their btc in other way?

  21. Re: Man overboard by Cederic · · Score: 1

    Or maybe, "Boss, I found a great blockchain conference. We have any travel budget left this year?"

  22. shocked! by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 3, Funny

    I am shocked, shocked that the bigwigs of fake pyramid scheme "currency" would be anything but sober, respectable fellows.

  23. Microcosim by thunderclees · · Score: 1

    This kind of thing is representative of what has happened to cryptocurrency since the banking hedonists have gotten into it.
    Besides cowboy hats really piss people off.
    (Though Cowboy Neil makes people happy).

  24. Re:And .... the AC's have it ! by leonardluen · · Score: 1

    Are we sure it was the real AC? A fat guy in speedos just seem to be more AC's style.