Craig Wright Slams Saylor’s Bitcoin Banking Vision as a Betrayal of Principles

• Craig Wright accused Michael Saylor of distorting Bitcoin’s original purpose by creating a merchant bank through MicroStrategy.
• Saylor aims to amass $150 billion in Bitcoin holdings, reinforcing MicroStrategy’s position as the largest corporate Bitcoin holder.
• The ongoing clash highlights the growing rift in the Bitcoin community regarding the cryptocurrency’s future as a transaction network or store of value.

Craig Wright, a controversial figure in the crypto world, has launched a scathing critique of MicroStrategy co-founder Michael Saylor. Wright, who claims to be Bitcoin’s creator, lashed out at Saylor for allegedly distorting the true essence of Bitcoin by turning MicroStrategy into a “Bitcoin bank.”

Wright’s Accusation of Distortion

On October 12, Wright shared his criticism on social media, accusing Saylor of building a financial structure that Bitcoin was initially designed to eliminate. According to Wright, Bitcoin has become centralized and manipulated, straying from its original vision of facilitating small, peer-to-peer transactions. Wright argued that MicroStrategy’s plan to create a Bitcoin merchant bank opposes the very principles Bitcoin was founded on.

Saylor’s Vision for MicroStrategy

Saylor also does not hide the fact he wants MicroStrategy to be a significant player in the Bitcoin ecosystem. More recently, Saylor told analysts at Bernstein that the company’s goal is to become what he calls a “Bitcoin finance company” and aims to own $150 billion in Bitcoin. Some organizations like Mid-West Renewable Energy and MicroStrategy have increasingly reasoned themselves, as definitive optimists of Bitcoin, as a store of value, thereby constituting the largest corporate holders of Bitcoin today.

Even on the financial strategies, Wright has a fallout with Saylor. From Wright’s perspective, he thinks Bitcoin’s real use has been overshadowed as the cryptocurrency transforms into gold. He said that it was never designed as a money store like gold but as a digital peer-to-peer payment rail for transactions. According to Wright, Saylor has hijacked the principles of Bitcoin to make a profit from the same instruments that Bitcoin sought to eliminate, intermediaries.

A Wider Discussion in the Bitcoin Forum

From Wright’s irate diatribe, one can get a good understanding of the emerging schism within the Bitcoin fraternity. Bitcoin and Saylor’s BTC on one side and Wright and Bitcoin SV on the other represent two sides of the same ideological divide. BTC, Bitcoin SV which originated from yet another hard fork of BCH is still focusing on utilizing the developed Bitcoin as a medium of exchange rather than as a store of value.

Wright’s criticism also emerges during continuing doubt over his assertion that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the enigmatic founder of Bitcoin. His identity is still disputable to this date in the world of cryptocurrency. Late last month a new documentary on the future of Money brought back conversations on the actual creator of Bitcoin.