Roger Ver, nicknamed Bitcoin Jesus for his championship of the digital currency, says BTC is now a pyramid scheme.

Speaking to BlockTV, Ver said the sole argument in favor of continued adoption of Bitcoin Core was the assumed appreciation in its value. In contrast, Bitcoin Cash rested on the bedrock of its utility for people.

Ver: Bitcoin speculation is a pyramid scheme

“Buy this and hold it and don’t do anything with it, and the price will go up and you can sell it for more later,” is the oft-touted strategy behind investing in BTC, says Ver, as reported by THE DAILY HODL.

Convincing other people to hold it and do nothing alongside other investors makes it a pyramid scheme, according to Ver, a.k.a. Bitcoin Jesus.

He may be having a point.

In the 2018 assessment published by the CFA Institute, “Bitcoin: New Asset Class or Pyramid Scheme?” former general counsel of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Debra A. Valentine, said this regarding pyramid schemes:

“They all share one overriding characteristic. They promise consumers or investors large profits based primarily on recruiting others to join their program, not based on profits from any real investment or real sale of goods to the public.”

Bitcoin may fit the bill. If new investors fail to prop up its value, the pyramid could come crashing down. Currently, therefore, a bitcoin investor is either a “future victim or a perpetrator,” says the CFA assessment.

Pure speculation and investment motives are not enough to sustain Bitcoin’s value, and adoption, over the long term, Ver says.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has utility value

“With Bitcoin Cash and many of these other altcoins out there, I hear them saying, ‘This is more useful than PayPal. This is more useful than your Bank of America account. This is more useful than your credit card. Try this because you can save 25% on Amazon by using Purse.io,’” says Ver.

According to Ver, the real boost to cryptocurrencies will come when billions of people use them to solve real problems and make lives easier.

“I want to build useful tools that make people’s lives better so they have options that are even better than PayPal or Visa or Bank of America,”  Ver said.

Ver supports Bitcoin Cash (BCH), the fifth-largest crypto by market cap. BCH was derived from a “fork” of the original Bitcoin. It allows for faster speeds of transaction because it has a larger block size.

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