It’s no secret that certain people in the Bitcoin community do not get along with anyone who doesn’t share their opinion. A discussion on Bitcoin Classic got out of hand on Reddit once again when user PaulCapestany started spewing hateful comments aimed at just about anyone. One Bitcoin community member has tracked down this user’s credentials, with signs pointing towards this possibly being one of the /r/Bitcoin moderators.
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Bitcoin Classic Discussion Goes Off the Rails
Having a nice and peaceful discussion about Bitcoin on any subreddit is becoming all but impossible these days. Some debates are greeted with shadowbans and complete censorship; in other cases, it is only a matter of time until someone starts attacking other posters. All in all, there is a lot of infighting to be found on Bitcoin subreddits in general, and things are not getting better by any means.
The most recent example of this childish behavior comes in the form of a Bitcoin Classic discussion that deteriorated very quickly. Even though the original post started out as a recap of who is in support of this solution and when the source code and binaries will be released, one user took it upon himself to attack other Reddit members.
PaulCapestany, as this user likes to call himself, didn’t spare anyone who was in favor of Bitcoin Classic. By addressing the main developers behind this project directly — and stating how ludicrous and disgusting their proposal is — the stage was set for another flame war.
The main gripe PaulCapestany seemed to have was how politics and effective appeal to emotion are coming into play as far as the Bitcoin block size debate is concerned.
Furthermore, this particular Reddit user went on to threaten those who are openly supporting Bitcoin Classic. By demanding how the core developers of this Bitcoin block size solution need to publicly denounce their support, things started to get nasty pretty quickly.
But it didn’t end there either, as PaulCapestany then went after Justin Toomim by calling him out as the leader of a mindless mob. That particular comment did not go over well with various Reddit users, and more flaming ensued. But who is this mysterious user who seemingly sits on a ton of information he can’t wait to expose?
Evidence: PaulCapestany Could Be Eragmus
Even though the research regarding PaulCapestany was brought to us by a third-party, there is reason to believe the real identity of this user is none other than /r/Bitcoin moderator Eragmus. If this were to be the case, it would hardly be a shock as anyone involved in /r/Bitcoin as a moderator strongly opposes any block size solution that is not developed by Bitcoin Core.
Based on the information we have received, the Reddit comments made by PaulCapestany can be linked to chat logs from the Bitcoin Classic Slack group. Correlations between both point in the direction of this user and /r/Bitcoin moderator Eragmus being one and the same person, although there is no official evidence to support these claims just yet.
So far, Bitcoin Core is the leading supported software by developers, community members, mining pools, and companies. At the same time, the recent block size debate has given rise to other solutions with merits of their own, such as Bitcoin Classic.
The official Bitcoin subreddit has a long history of flaming other members, abusing moderator privileges, and not being open towards debate regarding the future of Bitcoin. Theymos, who owns this Bitcoin subreddit — as well as BitcoinTalk and Bitcoin.org — is running a very tight ship, which is a large part of the reason the Reddit discussions have been moving to /r/BTC as of late.
It goes without saying that making threats to Bitcoin Classic developers is an absolute no-no. Rather than having a civilized discussion about things, there are always a few rotten apples who have to raise hell. This puts a negative spotlight on the Bitcoin ecosystem and brings us no closer to a solution for the block size debate.
What are your thoughts on some of the comments made during this Reddit discussion? Who is PaulCapestany? Let us know in the comments below!
Source: Reddit
Images courtesy of Reddit, Shutterstock
