Ragnar Lifthrasir who describes himself as “a passionate advocate in favor of bitcoin,” wants the imprisonment of Roger Ver, aka “Bitcoin Jesus”.

If sentenced, this would be Ver’s second time. He was sentenced to 10 months of imprisonment in 2002 for selling explosives on eBay. Liftrasir’s accusation was retweeted more than 500 times within 24 hours. In the subject of a related Reddit thread, the same issue was repeatedly discussed with different fraudulent charges.

All of these events stem from the fact that the block explorer which is a tool used to visualize the data on Bitcoin.com, an educational internet page that is owned by Roger Ver, labeled “bitcoin cash protocol”, which was broken off from bitcoin in August of last year, as only “bitcoin”.

For Lifthrasir and many other users, this small deviation from the definition of how the two competing currencies were misleadingly defined was the last drop of the glass.

Because of years of internal conflict between the two sides, some Reddit users even suggested to complain about Bitcoin.com to the FBI ‘s Internet Crime Complaint Center.  And a Telegram group called “Bitcoin.com lawsuit crowdfund” has already gathered more than 900 people.

Even those who once expressed a positive view on bitcoin cash blockchain and its potential value are terrified.

The second round … or the third?

If we look at the argument that Roger Ver is currently at the middle of, it is clear that the discussions about what or who defines bitcoin have started long ago. Does the code or white paper define it?

Or maybe it’s because there aren’t any internet pages, organizations, social media accounts and etc. that defines bitcoin. It is clear that there are different interpretations on this issue and the events have gotten a little worse because of the fact that it is not possible to get a consensus on what bitcoin is all about.

Bitcoin’s own software, of course, offered more than just a single adaptation, but the goal remained the same: to make it easier for those who run the software to decide the correctness of the transaction records if and when there are competing versions.

Until now, this program has included what is called the “best chain” rationale in the set rules, although the original output of the time was different from the current one.

At the time of the debut to the market, this rule indicated that the right bitcoin blockchain is the “longest chain”, meaning the processed data of the largest number of blocks provided by the miners. Soon after that the rule changed and the new version became the chain that has the most to the concept of “proof of work” which is used by the miners. It is the chain which updates and protects the blockchain.

Developers agreed that this change was for the development of the platform and decided that this “longest chain” was flawed. However, it should not be forgotten that the chain has been an important element of the debates on the bitcoin cash fork and other similar fork discussions for years.

A Provoking act

Although Ver’s point is part of an older debate, apparently the issue that makes the nation crazy is the way he uses it to share his views.

For example, recently, Ver posted a tweet that included a list of different ways that people might take into consideration for owning “bitcoin” software. He also includes the low transaction fees, a fast and reliable payment system that he associates with bitcoin cash.

He even extended this issue further, saying that bitcoin cash has beaten bitcoin core in all comparisons except for the category of “longest chain, with most proof of work” because the actual bitcoin miners’ network is bigger, and for this reason the chain has been in the possession of more processor power.

Ver keeps on calling bitcoin cash as bitcoin, and the arguments are building up ever since his tweet.

These discussions also inspired the theme of comparison between religion and bitcoin that emerged in the past weeks.

Ver discusses the subject like he is giving a sermon on this subject. In a conference in April, Ver said that refusing to accept bitcoin cash as real bitcoin has delayed the adoption of the technology and this also comes to mean that there are more newborns are dying in the nations all over the world.

This interpretation itself, because of the exaggeration it contains, has been subjected to an allure. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that those who are loyal to the developers of the bitcoin core and their software also experience such shootings and stunts.

For example, Twitter user Armin Van Bitcoin accused Ver of adding “mouse poison” into his marketing of bitcoin cash as bitcoin.

Lack of Idea Association

During all the arguments and tensions, the developers of the software seem to be a bit hesitant about all these internal conflicts.

When asked about their ideas, a few representatives from the volunteer group commented that there was no real answer to how to describe bitcoin because of the decentralized nature of the software.

Elizabeth Stark, CEO of the company that produces the high-level bitcoin technology named Lighting Lab, gave an example. Consider that a government has “attacked” the bitcoin blockchain and took the “longest valid chain” and then it had the authority to change its rules. She argued then it would no longer be bitcoin.

Other officials have shared the view that different decision-making structures are not adequate in similar ways.

Legal Proceedings Are Not Likely

Nevertheless, according to Jason Siebert who is a crypto money advocate, although it seems certain that some of them will try to sue Ver, the chances of success are very low. He has recently tweeted, “The only people with a claim would be those that purchased BCH instead of BTC thinking they were buying bitcoin.”

Even if private parties go and file lawsuits, the only thing they can get as a result is a correction or a monetary penalty. According to two crypto money-market experts, Ver does not get a prison sentence for this.

In theory, the Department of Justice may initiate criminal prosecution of fraud against Ver, but Ver’s movements have to comply with certain judgments such as intentionally defrauding a particular group and etc.

Matt Gertler, who works as an analyst and lawyer at Digital Asset Research, believes that Ver’s insistence that bitcoin cash is a real bitcoin may make it hard to prove that he is knowingly misleading the truth.

Moreover, because bitcoin.com does not sell bitcoin cash in US borders, these issues are really open to debate. Within the boundaries of the website, people can choose between buying bitcoin cash and the bitcoin core. The separation is very clear and there is no option to buy just “bitcoin”.

For these reasons no, Ver most probably does not go back to jail, but we can say that his dogma has brought this debate, which is constantly increasing, to new dimensions.