Mark Cuban and Tyler Winklevoss Squabble Over Bitcoin Complexity
Despite being over a decade old, Bitcoin (BTC) is still not particularly easy to understand. Even major BTC bulls like Tim Draper have admitted that Bitcoin still lacks ease of use for mainstream adoption.
In the same vein, two key figures in the community held an informal Twitter debate over Bitcoin’s complexity today.
Debate intro: Cuban might change his mind about Bitcoin if it gets so easy that “grandma can use it”
Mark Cuban, one of the most well-known Bitcoin sceptics, prefers to own bananas than invest in bitcoins. Cuban previously criticized Bitcoin’s complexity in an interview with Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano on April 15. In the interview, the owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks reiterated a common Bitcoin complexity narrative, arguing that Bitcoin needs to be easy enough that “grandma can use it” before mass adoption will occur.
When asked about what would have to happen for him to change his mind about Bitcoin, Cuban answered that it should become easy, elaborating on Bitcoin’s complexities:
“It’d have to be so easy to use, it’s a no-brainer. It’d have to be completely friction-free and understandable by everybody first. [...] There’s so many peculiarities to Bitcoin: the halving, the mining.”
Tyler Winklevoss questions the simplicity of Cuban’s favorite game, and the debate begins
While some in the crypto community agreed that BTC is quite difficult to use, Tyler Winklevoss, a co-founder of major crypto exchange Gemini, decided to weigh in. Winklevoss argued that, for someone without preexisting knowledge of the game, basketball is at least as peculiar as Bitcoin. He tweeted:
“There’s so many peculiarities to Bitcoin: the halving, the mining." - @mcuban The rules of basketball are far more peculiar, but that doesn't seem to be holding it back.”
It was not long before Cuban reacted to the Winklevoss’ remark, tweeting the following counter-argument in less than 10 minutes:
“One was started by a guy named James in a gym with a peach basket and a ball to entertain kids. The other was started by a guy no one can find, that hundreds claim to be, with a computer and an algorithm to give millions something to argue about. Which is simple?”
Winklevoss subsequently argued that both of these origin stories are “interesting from a historical perspective,”. He then firing out another argument, hinting that nobody really cares about basketball:
“My bet is that if you took a poll of all the basketball fans that buy tickets to watch @dallasm games, less than 1% would know that the game they are watching was started by a guy named James trying to entertain kids and 0% would actually care.”
After years of scepticism, Cuban delivered a mixed message about Bitcoin in late 2019. As Cointelegraph reported in December, Cuban admitted that Bitcoin could become a “reliable financial instrument.”
In September 2019, billionaire investor and major Bitcoin bull, Tim Draper, declared that people still prefer fiat money over Bitcoin. He reasoned that fiat money seems to be an easier option to pay for services. According to Draper, Bitcoin’s inherent difficulty is the main impediment to mass adoption. He further claimed that “engineers have not made it that easy enough for everyone to use Bitcoin.”