When you were a little kid, someone probably made you an offer like this: would you rather fives pennies or one dime?
If you understood the value of each coin, you’d pick the dime. If your concept of value was only limited to quantity, then you’d pick the pennies. It’s a cute way to start introducing the idea of value to young children—and apparently also a way to help see the motivations of adults.
Peter Rizun was a recent guest on Peter McCormack’s podcast, What Bitcoin Did, where he attempted to lay critiques against Bitcoin and the Lightning Network. I think he was wrong about a lot of what he said, but that’s not what I’m interested in talking about right now. For a rebuttal of Rizun’s comments, I recommend Episode 68 of The Stephan Livera podcast with Joost Jager.
When McCormack asked what he held in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, Rizun responded, “So, yes, I hold both BTC and BCH. I have more dollar value in BTC, but I have more coins in BCH because I see more upside potential there.”
Does that sound familiar?
Rizun did go on to say that if Bitcoin did scale in the way he saw fit (increase the block size), then he would switch back to using Bitcoin, so holding some Bitcoin wouldn’t necessarily be that controversial. The problem for Rizun, however, is that he made it clear throughout the interview that he saw Bitcoin Cash beating out Bitcoin with what he sees as a better scaling solution. So my question is this: why is Rizun holding more of his wealth in the coin that he thinks has less of a chance of succeeding?
Sure, if Bitcoin Cash were to beat out Bitcoin eventually, then the distribution of his wealth would reflect his predictions, but why not take advantage of what Rizun should consider a heavy discount for Bitcoin Cash and rebalance his holdings? If he is correct about Bitcoin Cash, then he is intentionally suppressing the amount of wealth he is expecting to accumulate.
It doesn’t make any sense. Why did he even bring it up? Does he not understand what he’s signaling by holding more of his wealth in Bitcoin than Bitcoin Cash? I have a tendency to doubt that’s the case. Regardless, actions speak louder than words, and holding a lot of Bitcoin while spreading FUD about it certainly says a lot.