hodlonaut-spartacus-osama

Bitcoin industry needs to grow up fast

Crypto troll avengers are assembling after one of their own was hit with a defamation claim by computer scientist Dr. Craig S. Wright.

On April 11, attorneys for Wright, the individual behind the Satoshi Nakamoto pseudonym, launched a legal action against the individual behind the @Hodlonaut Twitter account. Wright’s attorneys accuse @Hodlonaut of orchestrating a “targeted campaign” to harass and libel Wright with “highly defamatory and abusive tweets.”

Later that same day, the Hodlonaut account went dark, apparently spooked by CoinGeek’s coverage of the legal tiff, which included two photos believed to be the individual behind Hodlonaut. The photos, both posted via @Hodlonaut, appear to show the individual behind the account and the distinctive tattoos on each of his arms.

Hodlonaut’s online supporters took exception to Wright’s offer of US$5,000 in Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV) as a reward for information that can help identify the individual behind the Twitter account. As a result, some of them have temporarily changed their Twitter avatars to match Hodlonaut’s cat-in-spacesuit image, adding a hashtag variation on the “I’m Spartacus” meme.

Unfortunately, that analogy would only apply if Spartacus was famous for doing some really dumb things, like publicly accusing BSV supporter Calvin Ayre of being a pedophile without a shred of evidence to support that slur.

Hodlonaut deleted those tweets – and others accusing Wright of being a “very sad and pathetic scammer” and “mentally ill” – after attorneys reminded him that libel is still a crime. You know, just like Spartacus agreed to give up his quest and return to his life of slavery after learning that the Romans also had swords.

And Spartacus tried to give himself up to the Romans in order to spare his men, which is the polar opposite of the road taken by Hodlonaut, who simply vanished rather than have to legally justify some of his more dubious public positions. Viewed in that light, it might be more apt for Hodlonaut’s supporters to proclaim “I’m Osama,” although that probably wouldn’t offer them the specific rebel cachet they seek.

Neither Wright nor Ayre seek to crucify Hodlonaut outside the gates of Rome, but they do want to set the record straight regarding Wright’s rightful place in history at the birth of Bitcoin. They also want to ensure that other social media motormouths learn there is a price to pay for taking legally sketchy stances in public.

This whole episode is further evidence of the perpetual immaturity that plagues this industry, an arrested development that needs to end if this industry is to be taken seriously. BSV is dedicated to enterprise use for this very reason.

Hodlonaut is/was a public booster of the Lightning Network, the off-chain appendage intended to add slightly more transaction capacity to the irredeemably constricted Segwit Coin. So he has a clear self-interest in targeting Ayre and Wright in the hope of diminishing the public profile of BSV and preventing people from learning of its capacity for massive on-chain scaling.

If you want to learn the truth about BSV and its role in the future of money in a troll-free environment, we encourage you to check out the latest CoinGeek Conference going down in Toronto on May 29-30.

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