Calvin Ayre "backing one of the most polarizing efforts in digital currency world"

[The Buzz]

Old friend Calvin Ayre was interviewed by MarketWatch.com for an article about how after he "battled with the U.S. government" he's now "backing one of the most polarizing efforts in the digital currency world."

A few excerpts from the wide-ranging piece about Calvin's journey, posted yesterday:

In 2012, federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment filed against Ayre claiming he was operating an illegal online gambling business that was taking large volumes of sports bets from Americans. He fought the case from his native Canada and his home on the Caribbean island of Antigua. Five years later, the U.S. government dropped the felony charges filed against Ayre, who pleaded guilty to a minor offense, a single misdemeanor charge.

At the age of 60, Ayre returned to New York this past fall, not as an online gambling promotor, but as an evangelist for Bitcoin SV, which Ayre claims is the true and authentic Bitcoin because it is the only digital currency that follows the set of rules, or protocol, laid out by the white paper that launched Bitcoin in 2008. He organized a three-day conference at the Sheraton as part of his overall crusade, an effort that includes funding several companies and a media outfit dedicated to Bitcoin SV.

Ayre says Bitcoin SV is powered by a revolutionary technology that has many useful applications, while the digital currency most people know as Bitcoin is useless and a fraud. He says the group of developers maintaining and updating the Bitcoin protocol violated the way it was set up in the first place, pushing Bitcoin BTCUSD, 2.58% in a direction that was not originally intended by limiting its usefulness.

“For sure it’s a Ponzi scheme because it can’t do anything,” says Ayre of Bitcoin trading.

A crucial part of Ayre’s quest hinges on his support of Craig Wright and Wright’s claim that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonym used by the elusive inventor of Bitcoin. A fun-loving Australian entrepreneur, Wright has declared since 2016 that he is the person who launched Bitcoin against a firestorm of skepticism and doubt from digital currency players. Ayre and Wright have championed Bitcoin SV, which stands for “Bitcoin Satoshi Vision,” trading accusations of trickery and deceit with those who view Wright’s Satoshi claim as bogus.

“I will be producing evidence about my creation of Bitcoin,” Wright said in an email. “It matters because what is being called Bitcoin (BTC) is not, BSV is.”

“Craig is Satoshi,” says Ayre. “I think all of what you call crypto will die, a lot of it will be deemed illegal, as regulators start to understand more — a lot of people are going to lose a lot of money.”

One thing is clear: Ayre would have been much better off financially today had he kept his Bitcoin and not chosen to sell his holdings years ago, deciding to instead invest heavily in Bitcoin SV and its platform. But Ayre says he has no regrets.

“I am going to feel a lot better for myself from investing in companies and creating companies that solve real-world problems than from making money off the back of someone else,” says Ayre. “We don’t care if our price stays right where it is. Because if we’re using the platform to solve real data-management and valuation problems, that is independent of where the tokens trade.”

Read the article here: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/cr...gD6Q2SWFIRrBPI

[potentialeight]

The guy sure knows how to promote, I'll give him that.

[Sherlock]

He knew that.

BSV even from marketing point of view is a total failure. They are just laughed at. I really do not understand why a successful ageing billionaire must be a clown. Like it is his decision and I am personally very grateful to Bovada and Bodog. But it is fascinating that he did not give up yet.

[DaftDog]

He knew that.

BSV even from marketing point of view is a total failure. They are just laughed at. I really do not understand why a successful ageing billionaire must be a clown. Like it is his decision and I am personally very grateful to Bovada and Bodog. But it is fascinating that he did not give up yet.

Even intelligent people can be caught up in a cult. Craig Wright believes/pretends he is the Bitcoin Messiah and seems to have attracted a small cult following.

[potentialeight]

I really do not understand why a successful ageing billionaire must be a clown.

That's kind of always just been his thing. His trolling of the US government is a great example, just sitting on an island talking mad crap for something like five years straight before getting off on misdemeanors.

Personally, I'm glad guys like him exist. They make the world more interesting.

I think life probably gets pretty boring as a billionaire if you don't come up with crazy stuff like this to dedicate your time to.

[Sherlock]

There is a difference between "crazy stuff" entertaining the rich enfant terribles & masses that need to consume their heroes; and between scams.

The border is absolutely obscure, hard to be defined, but it does exist. Also the former has a tendency to change into the later.

BSV & especially CSW are scams. It is a bigger scam than your favourite shtcoin. They claim that BSV is Bitcoin. That is simply crossing all borders.

John McAffee was also a scammer who developed from funny anti-system hero. The result was awful for him and for everyone who believed in him, but who reminds McAffee nowadays correct?

The world need to consume and digest another enfant terribles.

[TheGooner]

The problem for billionaires is that they have so much money that they live in a relatively empty environment with no-one but paid sycophants for company - and so there is no critical input into any of their musings.

These people don't get push back on their stupidity, their poor ideas, or their misjudged views of the world so they continue on regards, oblivious to how they are really perceived by the world.

[potentialeight]

There is a difference between "crazy stuff" entertaining the rich enfant terribles & masses that need to consume their heroes; and between scams.

The border is absolutely obscure, hard to be defined, but it does exist. Also the former has a tendency to change into the later.

BSV & especially CSW are scams. It is a bigger scam than your favourite shtcoin. They claim that BSV is Bitcoin. That is simply crossing all borders.

I don't really know enough about crypto to know why BSV would be a scam. Could you give me the short version if you have a minute? This is all very intriguing for me.

[Sherlock]

It is really what I said. He is claiming and financing the campaign that BSV is "bitcoin". He and Wright (and Roger Ver) did it with BCH in a milder way, but with BSV he really went too far. He bought several crypto news sites, like Coingeek, where he is ridiculously claiming that BSV is bitcoin.

There was even a poster from him here at GPWA, who started with this bs propaganda (bitcoin is the BSV) here.

He is using and paying Craigh Wright as a puppet, claiming that that clown is a Satoshi Nakamoto. Where only the reality of post-truth world allows him to do so.

This is the scam. Not that it is one of the thousands of shtcoins.

I understand that poor people do borderline scams with their NFT/W3/defi etc projects. They are after all just kids who do not have a self-reflection and need money and I was the same after all even when not in crypto.

But being a billionaire and doing this outright scam is fascinating (I agree with Gooner here).

----------------------

From linguistictical/philosophical point of view the battle between BTC and its forks (BCH, BSV, BCHA/ecash, BTG, BTCD, BCX, BTD, BTA...) and ETH (ETC) is fantastic.

For me it is like a real scientific experiment on field (market), where we thought that such experiments can not exist.

It is the same like solving the puzzle of soul. I was always puzzled how many parts of my car/bicycle I can replace and it will be still my car/bicycle. The answer is obviously, that even when all parts are exchanged, it is still my (the same) car/bicycle. At least for me/ my family/ my space.

Even when most of the parts are second hand and some maybe from other cars/bicycles. And even if some chinese company makes a perfect copy of my original car/bicycle, it will not be the my real car/bicycle.

Analogically: BSV is closer to the original code of bitcoin. That is the selling point of the scam. But it does not make it bitcoin. Simply during the fork battle the spirit of bitcoin is transferred to the chain that most people define as bitcoin (so far it was also the chain with most blocks/hashrate, but I can imagine that in future even this rule can be contested... or maybe not..).

I do not know whether this was ELI5, but it is worth of observing.

[potentialeight]

Hey I appreciate that a lot. That's all incredibly interesting to me, and honestly, it's kind of funny with my screwed up sense of humor.

He bought several crypto news sites, like Coingeek, where he is ridiculously claiming that BSV is bitcoin.

Especially this part. As screwed up as it is, I can't help but be fascinated by having the resources to orchestrate and carry out this level of strategy and operation.

[Sherlock]

But he is losing money on it. BSV is a failure and scam at once.

It is not a successful project or scam or however it is called. It is not a strategy, it is an antistrategy. Hitler at Stalingrad was successful if compared to this.

So I am fascinated too, but how determined he is to keep burning money on it. This was the best year for shtcoins ever and BSV is lower than a year ago even in fiat terms!!!!

It is a pure ego that is eating money now.

What is remarkable (for me) is when someone without money, like young Ayre, builds just with the right decisions and lot of work the big business.

This is the opposite. Someone with a lot of money is just burning it.

In a broader sense it just shows how money itself is useless. I think anyone who made big money can feel that doing something with the money is actually much harder than doing something without it (if there is no blending with politics and corruption).

[potentialeight]

But he is losing money on it. BSV is a failure and scam at once.

It is not a successful project or scam or however it is called. It is not a strategy, it is an antistrategy. Hitler at Stalingrad was successful if compared to this.

So I am fascinated too, but how determined he is to keep burning money on it. This was the best year for shtcoins ever and BSV is lower than a year ago even in fiat terms!!!!

It is a pure ego that is eating money now.

What is remarkable (for me) is when someone without money, like young Ayre, builds just with the right decisions and lot of work the big business.

This is the opposite. Someone with a lot of money is just burning it.

In a broader sense it just shows how money itself is useless. I think anyone who made big money can feel that doing something with the money is actually much harder than doing something without it (if there is no blending with politics and corruption).

Successful or not, I still find the pure level of operation pretty intriguing.

Also, I think that once you have such a ridiculous amount of money that having fun doing what you're doing is probably worth more than making more money at some point. I feel like he's been at that level for quite a while (ie: BodogFight, should look into how ridiculously well they treated the fighters before folding, and I don't mean that sarcastically, even though I believe he lost money on it).

[Sherlock]

I do not agree that this is the case. I believe that he believes that he wants to make money. So it is an investment and very bad one.

Do you think McAffee had fun during last years of his life? He was acting like having fun and that was his selling point. What I always saw was an old man with an old prostitute, who in the end killed himself cornered.

I again see a potential personal tragedy here, regardless how it is painted.

CA always worked with top class people, who really did their job done and brought profit. In Crypto everything that comes from him is a complete nonsense promoted by retards.

People who are from zero to hero do not have fun by burning money. If they had, they would not been successful. He is acting ridiculously and he looks from all angles like a fool. (I do not say he is a fool.) It is not funny being perceived as an idiot and burn money during that.

I read an article where CA is trying to say that he was involved in blockchain since beginning. In 2014 I was trying to persuade Bodog/Bovada to accept bitcoin. By the time they did not know even how to spell it.

He simply missed what is going on.

The manipulation war is being played on different playground. Nobody cares about Coingeek. As is ironically written for example at Coingeek: https://coingeek.com/kim-kardashian-...-ethereum-max/

^ This is the type of scam that can make money. Not BSV.

[PROFRBcom]

So I am fascinated too, but how determined he is to keep burning money on it.

How can we be so sure he is "burning money" by being, perhaps, the largest person promoting BSV?

He is mining it. It appears to be profitable to mine BSV according to coin.dance, although admittedly at these low prices it is more profitable to mine BTC or BCH, almost every time I have looked in the past few years, mining BSV was more profitable than other "bitcoin" branded coins.

If he is accumulating these mined coins and they are losing value, then yes, he is losing his ass financially. However, if he has been mining them and selling them, he is making more money than he would have made mining BTC over the years, at least according to what I have seen in my random samplings of coin.dance.


I wonder whatever happened to the $100 million dollar resort he was building with "bitcoin"? I cant recall if it was catering to BTC, BCH, or BSV whenever he announced it.

[potentialeight]

I do not agree that this is the case. I believe that he believes that he wants to make money. So it is an investment and very bad one.

Do you think McAffee had fun during last years of his life? He was acting like having fun and that was his selling point. What I always saw was an old man with an old prostitute, who in the end killed himself cornered.

I again see a potential personal tragedy here, regardless how it is painted.

You definitely have a point. I still can't get over the whole "hey this chick was hired to poison me, but she's cool now so I'll marry her."

The manipulation war is being played on different playground. Nobody cares about Coingeek. As is ironically written for example at Coingeek: https://coingeek.com/kim-kardashian-...-ethereum-max/

^ This is the type of scam that can make money. Not BSV.

Yes, I enjoy that type of thing quite a bit as well, albeit perhaps for different reasons lol.