Bitcoin Cash

Bitcoin Cash: A Forked Path for Peer-to-Peer Payments

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a cryptocurrency born from a disagreement within the Bitcoin community in 2017. Let's explore its origins, its technical differences from Bitcoin (BTC), and its role in the cryptocurrency landscape.
A Fork in the Road
Bitcoin's core function is to facilitate peer-to-peer electronic transactions. However, as its popularity grew, so did the number of transactions vying for space on the blockchain. This congestion led to slower transaction times and higher fees.
The Bitcoin Cash proponents believed the answer lay in increasing the block size, the amount of data each block on the blockchain can hold. This would allow more transactions to be processed simultaneously, theoretically reducing fees and expediting transaction times.
This disagreement culminated in a hard fork in August 2017, essentially creating a new branch on the Bitcoin blockchain. The original chain remained Bitcoin (BTC), while the forked chain became Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

Bigger Blocks, Faster Transactions (or are they?)

The primary technical difference between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash lies in their block size. Bitcoin Cash increased the block size to enable faster transaction processing and lower fees.
In theory, this approach works. However, critics argue that larger block sizes lead to centralization, as only powerful computers with ample storage can participate in mining. This could potentially compromise the decentralized nature of cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin Cash vs Bitcoin: A Battle of Visions
Bitcoin Cash positions itself as the true heir to Satoshi Nakamoto's original vision for Bitcoin – a fast, cheap, and borderless peer-to-peer electronic cash system.
Bitcoin, on the other hand, has adopted a more cautious approach, prioritizing security and decentralization over faster transaction speeds. It has explored alternative scaling solutions like the Lightning Network to address congestion.

The Future of Bitcoin Cash

Bitcoin Cash has a loyal community and continues to be traded on major cryptocurrency exchanges. However, its adoption as a mainstream payment method lags behind Bitcoin.

Whether Bitcoin Cash can carve out a niche as a faster and cheaper alternative for everyday transactions remains to be seen. Its future will likely depend on its ability to address scalability concerns while maintaining decentralization.

References

1. ^ Vigna, Paul (1 August 2017). "Bitcoin Rival Launches in Volatile First Day". WSJ. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
2. ^ "Download Bitcoin Unlimited". Bitcoin Unlimited. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
3. ^ Cuthbertson, Anthony (21 May 2018). "The Battle over Bitcoin: Scandal and Infighting as 'Bitcoin Cash' Threatens to Overthrow the Most Famous Cryptocurrency". Independent. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
4. ^ Mukhi, Vijay; Khanapurkar, Nitin (2017). The Undocumented Internals of the Bitcoin, Ethereum and Blockchains. BPB Publications. ISBN 978-9-3865-5130-6.
5. ^ Vigna, Paul (23 December 2017). "Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ether, Oh My! What's With All the Bitcoin Clones?". WSJ. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
6. ^ Wilson, Tom (17 July 2019). "Smaller cryptocurrencies feel pain as criticism of Facebook's Libra grows". Reuters. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
7. ^ Kharif, Olga (23 November 2018). "Bitcoin Cash Wars End With No Relief for Biggest Cryptocurrency". Bloomberg LP. Retrieved 18 August 2019.
8. ^ Jump up to:
9. a b c d Popper, Nathaniel (25 July 2017). "Some Bitcoin Backers Are Defecting to Create a Rival Currency". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 28 July 2017.
10. ^ Jump up to:
11. a b "SegWit and the bitcoin transaction fee conspiracy theory". FT Alphaville. FT. 21 March 2018.
12. ^ Cuen, Leigh (22 August 2017). "Why Some People Love Bitcoin Cash". International Business Times. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
13. ^ Jump up to:
14. a b "Bitcoin divides to rule". The Economist. 5 August 2017. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
15. ^ Jump up to:
16. a b Irrera, Anna; Chavez-Dreyfuss, Gertrude (2 August 2017). "Bitcoin 'clone' sees a slow start following split". Independent. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
17. ^ Jump up to:
18. a b Nakamura, Yuri; Kharif, Olga (4 December 2017). "Battle for 'True' Bitcoin Is Just Getting Started". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
19. ^ Jump up to:
20. a b c Selena Larson (1 August 2017). "Bitcoin split in two, here's what that means". CNN Tech. Cable News Network. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
21. ^ Jump up to:
22. a b c Kelly, Jemima (15 May 2018). "Bitcoin cash is expanding into the void". Financial Times. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
23. ^ Titcomb, James (2 August 2017). "Bitcoin Cash: Price of new currency rises after bitcoin's 'hard fork'". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
24. ^ Orcutt, Mike (14 November 2017). "Bitcoin Cash Had a Big Day, Hinting at a Deep Conflict in the Cryptocurrency Community". MIT Technology Review. Archived from the original on 9 November 2018. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
25. ^ Chen, Lulu Yilun; Lam, Eric. "Bitcoin Is Likely to Split Again in November, Say Major Players". Bloomberg. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
26. ^ Huang, Zheping (15 November 2018). "Bitcoin cash "hard fork": everything you need to know about the latest cryptocurrency civil war". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
27. ^ Kharif, Olga (15 January 2019). "Ethereum Seeks to Prove a Crypto Fork Need Not Be Contentious". CNBC. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
28. ^ Jump up to:
29. a b c d e f Jeffries, Adrianne (12 April 2018). "THE ONE TRUE BITCOIN – Inside the struggle between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash". The Verge. Retrieved 7 April 2019.
30. ^ Kharif, Olga (18 September 2018). "Bitcoin Cash's Survival in Question as Possible Split Looms". Bloomberg. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
31. ^ Osipovich, Alexander (24 August 2018). "It Was Meant to Be the Better Bitcoin. It's Down Nearly 90%". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
32. ^ Evans, John (10 August 2018). "Cryptocurrency insecurity: IOTA, BCash and too many more". Techcrunch. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
33. ^ "Bitcoin ABC 0.22.10 Release Notes". 29 December 2020. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
34. ^ Bcash Nickname Sources:
    • Divine, John (17 February 2021). "Bitcoin Cash vs. Bitcoin: What's the Difference?". Fortune. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
    • Kharpal, Arjun (3 August 2017). "'Bitcoin cash' potential limited, but a catalyst could be looming for it to take off". CNBC. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
    • Jeffries, Adrienne (1 May 2018). "A Bitcoin podcaster brilliantly trolled his own hacker". The Verge. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
    • Browne, Ryan (20 December 2017). "Litecoin founder Charlie Lee says he's sold all his holdings in the cryptocurrency". CNBC. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
    • Jeffries, Adrienne (9 April 2018). "Twitter briefly shut down @Bitcoin, sparking wild conspiracy theories". The Verge. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
    • Shen, Lucinda (8 August 2017). "Bitcoin Just Surged to Yet Another All-Time High". Fortune Magazine. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
    • Ambler, Pamela (9 August 2017). "The Rapid Rise And Fall Of Bitcoin Cash". Forbes. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
    • Evans, John (10 August 2018). "Cryptocurrency insecurity: IOTA, BCash and too many more". Techcrunch. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
    • Kharpal, Arjun (3 August 2017). "TECH TRANSFORMERS: 'Bitcoin cash' potential limited, but a catalyst could be looming for it to take off". CNBC. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
    • Ou, Elaine (10 December 2017). "An Expert's Guide to Navigating the World of Bitcoin: A Q&A between Julie Verhage and Elaine Ou on crypto-assets and the resources involved in bitcoin mining". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
35. ^ Jump up to:
36. a b Clifford, Tyler (14 November 2018). "'Crypto civil war' slams bitcoin, but it won't last, says BKCM's Brian Kelly". CNBC. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
37. ^ Jump up to:
38. a b "Blockchair". Blockchair.com. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
39. ^ Peterson, Becky (9 January 2018). "Coinbase blames extreme buyer demand for last month's Bitcoin cash disaster". Business Insider. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
40. ^ del Castillo, Michael (14 May 2018). "Winklevoss Brothers Bitcoin Exchange Adds Zcash, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash". Forbes. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
41. ^ Decambre, Mark (2 August 2017). "Meet Bitcoin Cash—the new digital-currency that surged 122% in less than a day". MarketWatch. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
42. ^ Osipovich, Alexander (20 December 2017). "Coinbase may have given away its own Bitcoin Cash surprise". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
43. ^ Kharif, Olga (20 August 2018). "'Bitcoin Jesus' Is Having a Hard Time Winning Over True Believers". Bloomberg. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
44. ^ Jump up to:
45. a b c Aggarwal, Vipul; Tan, Yong (January 2019). "A Structural Analysis of Bitcoin Cash's Emergency Difficulty Adjustment Algorithm". ResearchGate. doi:10.2139/ssrn.3383739. S2CID 214022150.
46. ^ Noda, Shunya; Okumura, Kyohei; Hashimoto, Yoshinori (26 June 2019). "A Lucas Critique to the Difficulty Adjustment Algorithm of the Bitcoin System". SSRN. doi:10.2139/ssrn.3410460. S2CID 213032647. SSRN 3410460.
47. ^ Jump up to:
48. a b Kharif, Olga (17 November 2018). "Bitcoin Cash Clash Is Costing Billions With No End in Sight". Bloomberg. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
49. ^ Kharif, Olga (23 November 2018). "Bitcoin Cash Wars End With No Relief for Biggest Cryptocurrency". Bloomberg. Retrieved 7 December 2018.
50. ^ Kharif, Olga (15 November 2018). "Bitcoin Cash Fork Hits Investors' Pocketbooks as Two Coins Slip". Bloomberg. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
51. ^ Jump up to:
52. a b c Huang, Zheping (15 November 2018). "Bitcoin cash "hard fork": everything you need to know about the latest cryptocurrency civil war". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 18 November 2018.