Bitcoin Cash

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is designed as a peer-to-peer digital cash system with the goal of becoming a reliable global currency, offering quick transactions, minimal fees, privacy features, and a larger block size. This decentralized and permissionless cryptocurrency operates without the need for trusted intermediaries.

Introduced as an alternative to Bitcoin (BTC), the original and most prominent cryptocurrency, Bitcoin Cash emerged in 2017. Developers altered Bitcoin's code, launching their own version of the software, resulting in a hard fork that split Bitcoin into two distinct blockchains: Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. This division stemmed from disagreements within the community about scaling Bitcoin and the SegWit update. A subsequent hard fork in late 2018 further divided Bitcoin Cash into Bitcoin ABC and Bitcoin SV.

The scaling debate featured two opposing viewpoints. Those against increasing the block size argued it could result in centralization and weaken the blockchain by complicating full node hosting. Meanwhile, advocates for larger blocks pushed for a quicker solution, worrying that escalating transaction fees might stifle growth.

The mysterious creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, unveiled the coin's whitepaper, titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System," back in 2008. By 2009, the initial Bitcoin software, powering the blockchain, was released.

For several years, Bitcoin transactions were both affordable and reliable. However, by 2016, Bitcoin's growing popularity led to increased transactions on its network, causing slower processing times and higher fees. To address this, Bitmain, a mining hardware company, proposed a hard fork to expand the block size limit, allowing more transactions per block. This change went into effect on August 1, 2017, giving rise to Bitcoin Cash, which received backing from some in the Bitcoin community, including Roger Ver.

Bitcoin Cash has encountered its own challenges and milestones since its inception. A significant event was another hard fork in November 2018, resulting in the birth of Bitcoin SV (BSV), a separate cryptocurrency. This split arose from internal disputes within the Bitcoin Cash community regarding changes to its protocol. Consequently, two competing versions emerged: Bitcoin ABC, which continues as Bitcoin Cash, and Bitcoin SV, which became a separate cryptocurrency.

With a larger block size, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) processes transactions more quickly and at lower fees. Moreover, Bitcoin Cash supports smart contracts and ecosystem applications.

The total supply is capped at 21 million coins, making Bitcoin Cash provably scarce. Just like physical cash, it’s easy to spend, with transactions being swift and fees usually less than a tenth of a cent.

Bitcoin Cash serves various purposes. It facilitates peer-to-peer payments between individuals and can be used to pay merchants for goods and services both in-store and online. Its low fees make it suitable for new micro-transaction economies, such as tipping content creators or rewarding app users with small amounts. Additionally, Bitcoin Cash helps reduce costs and settlement times for remittances and international trade. Other applications include tokens, simplified smart contracts, and private transactions using tools like CashShuffle and CashFusion.

Some supporters saw Bitcoin Cash as the true extension of Satoshi Nakamoto's vision for Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. At the time of the fork (block 478,558), Bitcoin holders automatically received Bitcoin Cash.

Technically, Bitcoin Cash shares similarities with Bitcoin, such as a capped supply of 21 million coins, the use of a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism, and nodes for transaction verification.

However, Bitcoin Cash is designed to scale to meet the requirements of a global payment system, unlike Bitcoin (BTC). During the split, Bitcoin Cash's block size increased from 1MB to 8MB, allowing it to handle more transactions per second (TPS) and maintain low fees, addressing the delay and high fee issues experienced by some Bitcoin BTC users.

As of 2023, Bitcoin Cash boasts a 32MB block size, while Bitcoin's remains at 1MB.

Like Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash has a maximum supply limit of 21 million coins. As of May 2023, there are 19,387,119 BCH in circulation.

Similar to Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash uses a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus system. This involves miners solving complex puzzles to validate transactions and form new blocks.

Mining is the method through which new Bitcoin Cash transactions are verified, and blocks are added to the blockchain. Miners utilize computing power and electricity to tackle intricate puzzles, creating new transaction blocks. When a block is accepted by the network, the responsible miner or mining pool receives a block reward in the form of newly-minted Bitcoin Cash.

Mining is highly competitive. As Bitcoin Cash's market price increases, more miners are encouraged to contribute additional hash rate, intensifying the competition among miners to generate and validate blocks within the Bitcoin Cash network. An increase in miners enhances blockchain security by boosting and spreading the hash rate, preventing any single miner from dominating the network.

To purchase BCH at the current rate, the leading cryptocurrency exchanges include Binance, Coinbase, KuCoin, Kraken, and others.

For those who want to monitor BCH's price in real-time, the CMC mobile app can be downloaded to keep track of live prices for BCH, BTC, and other cryptocurrencies.