Roger Ver Bets Against SegWit Bitcoin Upgrade at Anarchapulco

Bitcoin’s long-simmering scaling debate flared this week at Anarchopulco, an annual libertarian-leaning bitcoin occasion held in Acapulco, Mexico.

Among the highlights was an unscripted, onstage confrontation between investor Roger Ver and researcher-pundit Tone Vays that got here to a head in a wager regarding the way forward for Segregated Witness – a bitcoin improve put ahead by the Bitcoin Core developer group late final yr. The change has since confronted heavy resistance from critics, together with Ver and former bitcoin lead maintainer Gavin Andresen.

Ver’s feedback got here throughout a roundtable consisting of Vays, the founding father of Sweden’s Pirate Party Rick Falkvinge, former Bitcoin Foundation government director Bruce Fenton and entrepreneur Joby Weeks. Ver, whereas notably absent when the onstage dialog started, later grabbed a microphone to deal with the viewers.

Ver informed the gang:

“I’m willing to bet any amount that SegWit will not activate. Would you like to take me up on that? $1,000…$10,000, a gentleman’s bet that SegWit will not activate. I’m not saying the technology is wrong, just that it won’t activate.”

Elsewhere within the dialog, Vays took goal at Bitcoin Unlimited, an alternate bitcoin implementation that seeks to extend the scale of the community’s transaction blocks, and that’s favored by Ver.

“I have said this, if Bitcoin Unlimited becomes the dominant fork of bitcoin then I will remove myself from the public eye,” mentioned Vays. “I may not sell my bitcoin, but will remove myself as a public speaker.”

Later, Fenton, a board member at the Bitcoin Foundation, contended that 95% node consensus – the edge required for community adoption of SegWit – will probably be extraordinarily troublesome, if not inconceivable.

“If I promised to give everyone in this conference hall one free bitcoin if they meet me outside after this panel,” he mentioned. “I’m certain that less than 95% of you would show up. Ninety-five percent in anything, even among like-minded people, is very difficult.”

The statements come amid continued in-fighting within the bitcoin group over how finest to extend the community’s capability, a debate that now dates way back to 2015.

Image through Roger Ver