Fork Wars: SWAT Team Targets BitGo’s Lopp in Suspected Bitcoin Troll

BitGo engineer Jameson Lopp reportedly received a visit from a police SWAT team, after the Bitcoin capacity debate turned personal.

In statements on Twitter, Lopp, who is well-known for his critical stance on Bitcoin forks, said a “fake hostage situation” led “dozens of cops with rifles” to his home Monday.

While it is unknown what specifically sparked the escalation, Lopp immediately received support against what he called the “anonymous coward,” himself responding that he was “not so easily intimidated.”

Dear anonymous coward who just sent dozens of cops w/ rifles to my house w/a false hostage situation report: I am not so easily intimidated. — Jameson Lopp (@lopp) October 16, 2017

Among those to take his side was Bitcoin Foundation executive director Bruce Fenton. Just two days prior, both he and Lopp had speculated on the motivation of the developers behind the upcoming SegWit2x Bitcoin hard fork.

Fenton had said he did not “see the benefit” of the scheme, while Lopp suggested its goal was to “coerce [Bitcoin] Core to adopt [a] block size increase.”

Despite the anonymity of the hoax, it is likely to further test credibility of the community advocating for hard forks of Bitcoin, after months of increasingly harsh debate.

Not just SegWit2x but Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has also returned to the spotlight this week, after an article in Roger Ver’s Bitcoin.com was labelled “propaganda” by pro-BTC parties.

Worst piece of BCash propaganda I’ve read so far. Bitcoin com is obviously out of NYA after this. #Bitcoin https://t.co/SnENScqaWZ pic.twitter.com/d0ESHPp2k3 — WhalePanda (@WhalePanda) October 17, 2017

Bitcoin Cash nonetheless began rallying Tuesday after a long sustained decline, rising 13 percent in the 24 hours to press time, according to data from Coinmarketcap.