With the news that Jihan Wu will no longer be CEO of Bitmain, it appears as if his time in Bitcoin will soon be coming to an end. As the boss of Bitmain, he turned them into a mining giant making vast amounts of money and then back again.
How Jihan managed to mess this up is quite amazing. One simple but costly mistake appears to have ruined him. When the scaling debate for Bitcoin began, Jihan was firmly on the side of bigger blocks. When this ended up leading to a split of Bitcoin and the fork of Bitcoin Cash, Jihan went all in on BCH.
Since then, BCH’s price, like most other cryptocurrencies to be fair, has fallen significantly. However, the Bitcoin Cash fall has been much greater than most, and the project looks further than ever from being the “real” Bitcoin as they proclaim. Even this moniker has been usurped by BSV.
Jihan doesn’t have too many friends in the community. Even Craig Wright is not a fan. Much of this animosity comes from the empire that Jihan was able to create.
Through the business of Bitmain, Jihan was able to create the number one mining conglomerate in Bitcoin. This in turn led to fears of mining centralisation. If one miner has over 51% of the hash rate, then there is always a chance that they can perform a 51% attack like we recently saw on Ethereum Classic.
Due to this, many individuals saw Jihan as someone with a little bit too much power. And due to one drastically bad decision, it all seems to have gone up in smoke.
I wouldn’t feel too sorry for Jihan. I am sure that he has made enough money off of Bitmain in this short time that he will be comfortable for the rest of his life. Without Jihan as the boss of Bitmain, it will be interesting to see how Roger Ver reacts. Roger hasn’t been having the best time either recently. With the recent Bitcoin Cash fork and the loss of Jihan, things are not looking too rosy for him.
There is a clear lesson to be learnt here, though. If you think you can take over Bitcoin, think again.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. We do not give advice on financial products.