Written by Adam Tarlowski.
It is no secret that the Bitcoin and Ethereum communities have had their fair share of disagreements over the years.
The recent “Supplygate” controversy – sparked by the inability of the Ethereum community to pinpoint the total supply of Ethereum – is just the latest in a long line of shots fired between the two communities. This most recent controversy sparked a spirited debate on Twitter between Samson Mow, a prominent Bitcoin Maximalist, and Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum. Peter McCormack, a great friend of The Wolf of All Streets team, hosted the two on his podcast this week to continue the debate and cover other topics of interest for the two communities.
Sure, a lot is at stake, but does any of this matter for people outside of the crypto community? Further, what was the debate really about?
Fundamentally, both sides outlined the fundamental grounding of their respective coins and where they are headed. In response to genuine questioning on the stability and clarity of that grounding for Ethereum, Vitalik used the opportunity to claim Ethereum is more general and is still growing, while Samson flagged this as a concern given Ethereum cannot be easily defined. Vitalik further expanded that the Ethereum community has made substantial progress around ETH 2.0 but is still searching to find a clear set of principles for community alignment and long-term goals. Samson noted that one of Bitcoin’s strengths is that the community has a clear set of closely held beliefs regarding economic, political, and monetary policy.
The debate progressed into more nuanced concerns, such as Ethereum’s role as money, Bitcoin vs Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum’s supply, Ethereum’s advertising, the two community’s decentralization and more. Vitalik stood behind the belief that both Ethereum and Bitcoin can prosper long-term, whereas Samson believes Bitcoin will win out and make Ethereum obsolete. For investors, if Samson’s assertion that Bitcoin will ultimately win out is true, this could be bad news for those stuck holding Ethereum. Both Vitalik and Samson described respective progress towards the Lightning Network and ETH 2.0 as “slow,” and they agreed that the current DeFi craze is moving too quickly, warning listeners that research is imperative when trading emerging assets within the space.
The debate sparked great attention and excitement among its listeners. We are excited to announce that Samson Mow accepted an offer to record an episode on the Wolf Of All Streets Podcast to elaborate on how he thinks about these issues. Vitalik, if you are reading this, you are more than welcome to join! We would love to host Round 2.
From our perspective on the Wolf Team, as interesting and important as the debate was, it didn’t affect our fundamental trading or investment strategy. We advise all listeners to learn from these two brilliant minds and develop a deeper understanding of the events to unfold in the coming years.