A popular Linkedin post that was written on December 8 claimed the end of the Bitcoin network was coming. In fact, the post that has since been deleted was supposedly created by ‘MIT fintech alumni’ and stated a significant “stress test” was coming to attack the Bitcoin blockchain on Monday, December 12. However, the editorial seems to be a hoax, as nothing emerged from the creators of Forcecoin.
The Bitcoin Network Doomsday That Never Came to Fruition
Monday, December 12 was supposed to be doomsday for the cryptocurrency bitcoin, according to a recently deleted Linkedin story. When the article was published, its author made sure it was seen across various social media platforms such as Reddit. The report classified Bitcoin as a “tulip” craze and stated that it was a “fundamentally flawed virtual currency.” According to the author a series of “global automated tests” were set to spam the Bitcoin network and show the world the digital asset “cannot be used as a store of wealth.”
“It’s time for it to make way for a better designed, more compliant, and more secure system as a global digital currency,” explained the so-called creators of Forcecoin.
Just as the December 12 attack never materialized, the team’s website URL also was an unclaimed domain according to Godaddy. Furthermore, the article in question was deleted but saved via archive.is. Going through the post shows the author was either purposely hoaxing the Bitcoin community or didn’t understand the protocol at all.
For instance, the article invited hackers from all around the world to steal the Forcecoin code similar to when the Mt Gox code was leaked. Yet this past exchange code leak had nothing to do with the Bitcoin network itself and is a meaningless argument. The article states if hackers “succeed at breaking into Salesforce and stealing ForceCoin code – we, as the Salesforce MIT ForceCoin.org team, will concede defeat and acknowledge Bitcoin as the winner.”
According to Mainstream Media and Skeptics, Bitcoin Has Died Many Times
According to Bitcoin Obituaries the digital asset has died 117 times, according to the many mainstream media reports. The Linkedin article titled “Bitcoin is a bubble. It will burst on Monday 12 December 2016” is now recorded as the last bitcoin death. Other overly exaggerated bitcoin deaths come from publications such as Bloomberg, Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal and much more. Many deaths supposedly occurred after Mt Gox, when Mike Hearn left, and when Bitfinex was breached.
Most cryptocurrency enthusiasts easily dismiss these headlines of bitcoin bursting at the seams. The Linkedin post/hoax was no different as even if it was true, the points made were quite illogical. However mainstream media and those who don’t know much about bitcoin can easily be swayed by such headlines. Think about how many of your friends say, “Oh I thought bitcoin had died.”
The alleged team behind Forcecoin doesn’t seem to exist, and the December 12 bubble pop or stress test never came. In fact climbed to a high of $779 beating out this year’s price high and the highest value bitcoin has been in three years.
What did you think about the Forcecoin hoax? Or the many so-called “Bitcoin deaths” that have transpired since the cryptocurrency’s inception? Let us know in the comments below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Bitcoin.com, and Pixabay.
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