FTX’s Bankman-Fried Accused of Misleading Public Over Bitcoin as FT Picks His Words ‘Selectively’

Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO and founder of major crypto exchange FTX, and investor in Solana (SOL), was accused of misleading the public as he omitted important facts while bashing Bitcoin (BTC). The CEO claims that his quotes were chosen “very selectively” by a mainstream media outlet, known for skepticism towards Bitcoin and crypto.

In an interview with the Financial Times (FT), Bankman-Fried said that the proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, which powers Bitcoin, can’t be scaled to support millions of transactions, thus making the flagship cryptocurrency an inefficient means of payment. 

“The Bitcoin network is not a payments network and it is not a scaling network,” he was quoted as saying in the article titled “Bitcoin has no future as a payments network, says FTX chief.”

The CEO also promoted proof-of-stake (PoS)-powered blockchains, such as Solana, that suffered multiple outages this year, saying that these networks are “extremely efficient and lightweight and lower energy cost.”

Nevertheless, Bankman-Fried said that Bitcoin still has a future as “an asset, a commodity and a store of value” similar to gold.

And while the CEO might be technically right, these statements came as a surprise to some in the crypto community, who pointed out that Bitcoin is a settlement layer that uses the fast-growing Lightning Network (LN), a layer 2 (L2) solution designed to make Bitcoin transactions faster and cheaper, as the payment network. Competing blockchains, such as Ethereum (ETH), are also using L2 scaling solutions.

Others called Bankman-Fried’s comments “misleading” since they made no mention of the Lightning Network, speculating that he could be trying to promote Solana, a network he has heavily invested in. 

However, the crypto billionaire later said that the FT has chosen his “words very selectively,” acknowledging that “BTC can be [offered] on lightning/L2s/etc.” 

Meanwhile, in late 2021, when the CEO testified at the Digital Assets and the Future of Finance: Understanding the Challenges and Benefits of Financial Innovation in the United States hearing, he also took the opportunity to highlight the benefits of PoS over PoW, calling the former a “low-cost, carbon-efficient” alternative.

Previously, Bankman-Fried has also claimed that centralized Solana is better than decentralized Ethereum since it can support a large number of users and transactions and can accommodate mass adoption.
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Learn more: 
– Lightning Network Adoption at Exchanges is Growing: This is Why It’s Good for Bitcoin
– Major Bitcoin & Crypto Companies Warn of ‘Extreme’ Risk in Proof-of-Stake Systems

– Ripple’s Exec Campaign Has ‘Zero Chance’ of Forcing Bitcoin to Proof-of-Stake, But Brace for More Attacks
– ‘PoS Fanatics Attacking PoW are Actual Supervillains’, Kraken’s Powell Says as US Politicians Charge
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(Updated at 11:04 UTC with an additional tweet.)