Bitcoin Bull Tim Draper Finds Himself In Bitcoin Cash Shilling Mystery
There is a reason to doubt that it was in fact the well-known US-based venture capital investor and Bitcoin (BTC) enthusiast Tim Draper who was recently promoting Bitcoin Cash (BCH) on Twitter. A twist in the story is that it might’ve been a hacker all along, while others suspect a paid post gone wrong.
On September 4, a post appeared on Tim Draper’s Twitter account, saying to his 144,300 followers that he bought some BCH, that it was simple to buy and use, directing people to Bitcoin.com, and thanking tech entrepreneur and BCH evangelist Roger Ver “for this innovation” (though Ver’s official account wasn’t the one that was tagged, but of another person using Ver’s name).
Ver even thanked Draper at the time.
However, the post has been deleted since, prompting speculations about what could be the reason behind it, one of the suggestions being a hack. Indeed, two days later, João Almeida, co-founder of BTC payment processor Open Node, said that he can “confirm [Draper’s] account was compromised and he deleted the tweet as soon as he was aware.”
Asked about where his confirmation comes from, Almeida claimed that he’s been in contact with Draper and his team. As reported, Tim Draper invested USD 1.25 million in OpenNode in December 2018.
There have been no new posts on Draper’s account since the deleted tweet, and no explanations or confirmations either.
The Cryptoverse commented on this latest development, though it doesn’t seem that everybody’s entirely convinced it was a hack yet. Popular BTC enthusiast and investor WhalePanda said that it might’ve been a hack, but also wondered if it was a paid promotion that somehow backfired – a thought which some in the post’s comment section seem to agree with, suggesting Draper had promoted “scam projects” in the past.
But a person who suspected it was a hack right away was Riccardo “Fluffypony” Spagni, former Monero (XMR) lead maintainer, who stated that Draper would’ve at least tagged the right Roger Ver.
The sudden endorsement and promotion of Bitcoin’s popular hard fork did come as a surprise to the Cryptoverse, given that it’s well known that Draper has been a major BTC supporter. In 2018, he estimated that bitcoin would hit USD 250,000 within four years, and he said that crypto would become the primary means of payment within five years. Meanwhile, this year, blockchain venture studio Draper Goren Holm pledged to give USD 1 million in BTC to celebrate their annual blockchain-focused conference going digital, and Draper stated that he was out of public stock market for months, instead increasing the amount of BTC in his portfolio.
