Coinbase has proven the big blockers point for them

In watching the bitcoin fork drama play out, I was reminded of the story of King Solomon and his threat to cut the baby in half in order to see which supposed mother truly loved the baby and would intervene to prevent it. My initial belief was that both of the sides loved their own interests more than they loved the bitcoin baby.

The big blocker argument was that they are effectively being pushed out by an increasingly centralized and controlling core government that was putting their control above the good of the system. Roger Ver (aka Bitcoin Jesus/aka Bitcoin Judas) spoke at length about these issues in a recent interview.

The core "small block" group argued that they were trying to prevent centralization of mining. However, they have censored content on the Bitcoin reddit blog, and have taken other steps that are concerning when one discusses decentralization. The most concerning one is what was exercised through Coinbase where they refused to provide bitcoin's holders BTcash coins.

I wrote an article about this when the story first broke, questioning whether Coinbase would be sued: https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@coolhandcanuck/will-coinbase-be-sued-over-bitcoin-cash-decision

More recently, there have been a slew of news articles about the likelihood of Coinbase being sued for their actions. In listening to various podcasts I have heard suggestions that there were two pending lawsuits, that an elected official was promising to look into this and regulate further and another podcast where there was a suggestion that users could certainly contact the FBI about this practice.

Some might think that Coinbase might be doing this for their own profit (this had crossed my mind), but Coinbase has since said that they are not doing so and would never keep the coins for themselves. I believe them - I think that this is all simply about control. It's about trying to fight their perceived enemy even if it strips everyone else of their right to choose. That is the real tragedy for a system whose very ethos is decentralization and personal choice.

Make no mistake there are other tragedies in this - Coinbase has irreversibly harmed their reputation, not only in the community, but also in the general public. Remember that Coinbase is crypto-currency in the eyes of a lot of members of the public and their ridiculous decision has taken us all a step back in the eyes of the general public and the government and will probably harm crypto's adoption rates as well. people wonder what would have happened if a stock brokerage had told its customers that when Ebay and Paypal split, they just weren't going to give them their Paypal stock because of a political alliance.

Imagine further what will happen if the FBI opens an investigation, if people face charges, if an elected official starts proposing new regulations for all of crypto and perhaps uses the word theft, and lawsuits start emerging with troubling allegations. Coinbase has achieved a relatively white glove personna by abiding by legislation, being regulated and showing that crypto can be a "good boy" and a legitimate vehicle. In one fell swoop they are tearing that apart and may well damage the entire crypto community in the process.

And why are they doing it? Not for profit, but for control, for the belief that they should control everyone's thoughts and decisions for them because they know better. Some might suggest that this shows signs of the psychological condition of Megalomania . People with megalomania have delusional fantasies that they are more relevant (important) or powerful than they truly are.

If the original Bitcoin is better than bitcoin cash and the path is better then it will win - the market will decide that. What exactly is Bitcoin Core scared of and why are they trying to quash people's ability to choose? They are trying to remove choice and that sort of conduct is not only unfair, it is a frightening comment on the governing forces of Bitcoin itself and a precursor to what the future holds under a centralized Core controlled system.

UPDATE: Minutes ago, Coinbase announced that they were reversing course (no doubt in the face of the numerous lawsuits, rumblings about FBI involvement and US government investigation) and would be crediting their customers with bitcoin cash, but only in January 2018. Regardless of the time-frame, Core has shown their true colors and those colors very much resemble, in my respectful view, the patterns of past dictators, which is no fit for a system modeled on decentralization and personal freedom.

If King Solomon were alive today, he would hand the baby to Bitcoin cash and banish Core.