| Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... |
Cryptocurrency blog Coin Rivet has reached a settlement in which the site apologized to Calvin Ayre and paid £5,000 in damages for its “completely untrue” articles alleging that Ayre was guilty of improper relations with underage females.
The apology, which can be viewed on the Coin Rivet site here, references an article that claimed Ayre “had been referred to Interpol, to the police and to child abuse charities after tweeting images of ‘pre-teen’ girls.” Coin Rivet now acknowledges that these claims were “completely untrue.”
Coin Rivet further acknowledged that “none of the women in the images Mr. Ayre tweeted were ‘pre-teen’ or under the age of consent. We also accept that Mr. Ayre has not been referred to the police or child abuse charities over his tweets. There are no grounds to suspect him of child abuse.”
Coin Rivet has since removed “all articles on this topic” along with all links to the articles on its social media accounts. Coin Rivet has also agreed to join in “a statement to the English High Court” in settlement of Ayre’s complaint.
One of Coin Rivet’s more egregious articles was written by Helen Bennicke, who claimed that she and another Coin Rivet colleague had reported Ayre to police and child protection charities. Coin Rivet editorial director Darren Parkin later confirmed that Bennicke had subsequently confessed that neither she nor her colleague had taken any such action. Coin Rivet has severed its ties to Bennicke.
Ayre previously announced that he would forward all monetary damages received via his legal action to the five Cuban women whose reputations have been forever tarnished by the reckless reporting of Coin Rivet and other crypto bloggers.
Since this uproar began, the women have been questioned by local police on suspicion of prostitution, a serious charge in a police state such as Cuba. So while this settlement with Coin Rivet marks the end of a road for Ayre, these five women will continue to unnecessarily suffer the fallout for a long time to come.
Ayre has also warned that Coin Rivet is just the first stop in his pursuit of legal remedies. There are numerous other crypto blogs and social media accounts who took great delight in regurgitating the same falsehoods. These individuals are now faced with a binary choice: delete their lies or defend them in court.
Coin Rivet denied that their publishing of these falsehoods was driven by any ‘malicious agenda’ against Ayre or the Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV) protocol that he champions. Other members of this libelous posse, many of whom actively promote rival cryptocurrencies that don’t feature BSV’s capacity for massive on-chain scaling, will find it a lot more difficult to make similar denials.
Ayre has also voiced suspicions that the timing of these public attacks was intended to diminish interest in the upcoming CoinGeek Conference in Toronto on May 29-30. Anyone wishing to learn more about BSV’s pivotal role in the future of money – or to hoist a victory toast with Ayre at the Conference after-party – will find it well worth their while to attend.
New to blockchain? Check out CoinGeek’s Blockchain for Beginners section, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about blockchain technology.
