Cøbra, the co-founder and co-owner of massively popular Bitcoin forum Bitcointalk and Bitcoin.org, has criticized a major US-based Bitcoin exchange Bitstamp for listing Bitcoin Cash as Bcash, despite the outrage from the Bitcoin Cash community.
Throughout the past few months, some of the most influential investors and figures within the Bitcoin Cash community including early-stage Bitcoin Investor Roger Ver and Bitmain Co-founder Jihan Wu encouraged the cryptocurrency community to not refer to Bitcoin Cash as Bcash, because the original name of the Blockchain project is Bitcoin Cash.
At the Ethereum Classic Summit held in Hong Kong and during various interviews, both Ver and Wu clarified that the Bitcoin Cash community is not in favor of exchanges, individuals and traders referring to Bitcoin Cash as Bcash.
Bitstamp and Bitfinex refer to Bitcoin Cash as Bcash
Throughout the past month, several major Bitcoin exchanges such as Bitstamp and Bitfinex have either listed or referred to Bitcoin Cash as Bcash in several instances. Most recently, Bitstamp formally listed Bitcoin Cash as Bcash on its trading platform, igniting controversy amongst the global cryptocurrency community.
However, within hours after the statement of Bitstamp was released announcing the integration of Bitcoin Cash as Bcash, the Bitstamp development team reversed its decision and listed Bitcoin Cash as Bitcoin Cash, not as Bcash.
“More Bcash drama today. BitStamp launched Bitcoin Cash trading today, but in an unexpected turn of events, they named it Bcash to avoid confusion. Then they got a lot of backlash from Bitcoin Cash supporters, so they switched it back,” said Charlie Lee, the creator of Litecoin and former executive at $1.6 bln Bitcoin brokerage Coinbase.
The official statement of Bitstamp, which has now been updated due to the outrage of the Bitcoin Cash community, read:
“Full trading support for Bitcoin Cash is now available at Bitstamp. And to help avoid confusion between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, please note that we refer to Bitcoin Cash as “Bcash (BCH)” on our platform.”
Response
In response to the initial announcement of Bitstamp and the decision of the company to list Bitcoin Cash as Bcash, Cøbra wrote:
“A large exchange like Bitstamp calling Bitcoin Cash “Bcash” screams unprofessional and petty. It’s funny when done by individuals to troll or tease BCH supporters, but businesses should be behaving more professionally.”
In response to Bitcoin Reddit moderator BashCo’s statement on Bitcoin Cash subverting the Bitcoin brand, Cøbra noted that Bitstamp had the decision not to support Bitcoin Cash. If the exchange genuinely supported the cryptocurrency, it either should have had listed it as Bitcoin Cash, or not list the cryptocurrency at all.
“They had the option to not support it at all. Why support it and call the coin a politically charged name? Seems very unprofessional. No exchange calls Ethereum Classic ‘Eclassic,’” Cøbra added.
At this phase of development, the cryptocurrency community and industry must provide a unified name for Bitcoin Cash, whether that is Bcash or Bitcoin Cash, to prevent controversy and confusion.