BCC is Bitcoin? Charlie Lee: I don't agree

A few days ago, Bitcoin.com pointed out in an article that Bitcoin Cash (BCC) is Bitcoin, which caused controversy in the community. Some top professionals in the industry have strongly opposed this view, including Charlie Lee, the founder of Litecoin (LTC).

‘BCC is Bitcoin’

BCC was created by large mining pools such as ViaBTC and Bitmain through a hard fork in September this year. Since then, support and demand for BCC have declined significantly, as can be seen from the cryptocurrency’s hashrate and market capitalization.

The predecessor of BCC is Bitcoin ABC, which was proposed by Bitmain in July. When BCC was born, even Bitmain was shocked by ViaBTC's hard fork plan. However, in the past two months, BCC has failed to catch up with the original Bitcoin chain in all aspects, such as user base, computing power, market value and developer activities.

This week, Bitcoin.com wrote:

Based on the comparison of the various versions of Bitcoin listed above, the white paper, and the recognition over the years that Bitcoin is an electronic cash system, this site's position is that BCC is the version of Bitcoin that is closest to the original idea.

The position that BCC is Bitcoin is based on its adherence to the design goals and original purpose of Bitcoin.

Industry experts respond

Earlier this month, some large Bitcoin wallet platforms and exchanges, including Coinbase and Bitfinex, announced that they would not recognize the upcoming SegWit2x hard fork in November as Bitcoin or BTC, even though the hashrate of this chain exceeds that of the original Bitcoin chain. If 75% of miners support the November hard fork, then the hashrate of the SegWit2x chain is likely to exceed that of the original Bitcoin chain. However, if the needs of the market, users, and investors are not met, miners are likely to switch back to the original chain after the difficulty adjustment.

Currently, BCC’s performance cannot compare to Bitcoin in all aspects. Lee said:

Many newcomers will be misled by Bitcoin.com. This article is full of lies and FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt). The absence of replace-by-fee does not mean that unconfirmed transactions are safe. In addition, even with Segregated Witness (SegWit), confirmed transactions are irreversible. Segregated witness signatures are not removed from transactions, but the transaction data structure is changed to become more secure.

As Lee said, BCC is not Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the original Bitcoin chain currently known as "Bitcoin" and "BTC". Even if SegWit2x is born after November, the current version of Bitcoin is likely to become the "majority chain" because the value and market value of Bitcoin are not determined by miners, but by users and investors.

Lee further emphasized that the end result is not important. It is unethical to deliberately confuse newcomers in the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency market.

This has nothing to do with the final result. It is wrong to mislead newcomers to Bitcoin.