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|last=van Wirdum|first=Aaron|publisher=Bitcoin Magazine|date=7 August 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitstamp-criticized-for-listing-bitcoin-cash-as-bcash-despite-community-outrage|title=Bitstamp Criticized For Listing Bitcoin Cash as Bcash, Despite Community Outrage|last=Young|first=Joseph|publisher=CoinTelegraph|date=6 December 2017}}</ref> but after being criticized, they switched the name back to Bitcoin Cash.<ref>{{cite web|title=Bitstamp|url=https://www.bitstamp.net/|website=bitstamp.net|accessdate=18 December 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Bitfinex|url=https://www.bitfinex.com/|website=bitfinex.com|accessdate=18 December 2017}}</ref>
|last=van Wirdum|first=Aaron|publisher=Bitcoin Magazine|date=7 August 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitstamp-criticized-for-listing-bitcoin-cash-as-bcash-despite-community-outrage|title=Bitstamp Criticized For Listing Bitcoin Cash as Bcash, Despite Community Outrage|last=Young|first=Joseph|publisher=CoinTelegraph|date=6 December 2017}}</ref> but after being criticized, they switched the name back to Bitcoin Cash.<ref>{{cite web|title=Bitstamp|url=https://www.bitstamp.net/|website=bitstamp.net|accessdate=18 December 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Bitfinex|url=https://www.bitfinex.com/|website=bitfinex.com|accessdate=18 December 2017}}</ref>


Bittrex,<ref>{{cite web|title=Cryptocurrency Exchange - Bittrex.com|url=https://www.bittrex.com/Market/Index?MarketName=BTC-BCC|website=www.bittrex.com|accessdate=13 February 2018}}</ref> Binance,<ref>{{cite web|title=Cryptocurrency Exchanges-Binance.com|url=https://www.binance.com/|website=binance.com|accessdate=14 January 2018}}</ref> and Huobi exchange<ref>{{cite web|title=Statement about Huobi’s attitude to BTC and Bitcoin Cash|url=https://www.huobi.com/p/content/notice/getNotice?id=624|website=huobi.com|accessdate=18 December 2017}}</ref> use BCC as Bitcoin Cash's ticker symbol instead.
Bittrex,<ref>{{cite web|title=Cryptocurrency Exchange - Bittrex.com|url=https://www.bittrex.com/Market/Index?MarketName=BTC-BCC|website=www.bittrex.com|accessdate=13 February 2018}}</ref> [https://www.binance.com/?ref=25321630 Binance],<ref>{{cite web|title=Cryptocurrency Exchanges-Binance.com|url=https://www.binance.com/|website=binance.com|accessdate=14 January 2018}}</ref> and Huobi exchange<ref>{{cite web|title=Statement about Huobi’s attitude to BTC and Bitcoin Cash|url=https://www.huobi.com/p/content/notice/getNotice?id=624|website=huobi.com|accessdate=18 December 2017}}</ref> use BCC as Bitcoin Cash's ticker symbol instead.


==== Cryptocurrency wallets ====
==== Cryptocurrency wallets ====

Revision as of 04:46, 15 February 2018

Bitcoin Cash
Logo
Denominations
CodeBCH[a]
Precision10−8
Subunits
 1⁄100000000satoshi
Development
Implementation(s)BitcoinABC, Bitcoin Unlimited, Bitcoin XT[1]
Project fork ofbitcoin
Ledger
Genesis blockJanuary 3, 2009 (16 years ago) (2009-01-03)[2]
Block #1January 9, 2009 (15 years ago) (2009-01-09)[3]
First block after split (block #478559)August 1, 2017 (7 years ago) (2017-08-01)
Timestamping schemeProof-of-work (partial hash inversion)
Hash functionSHA-256
Issuance scheduledecentralized, block reward
Block reward12.5 BCH[b]
Block time10 minutes
Block explorerblockchair.com/bitcoin-cash/blocks
Supply limit21,000,000 BCH
Valuation
Exchange rateIncrease 1,233 USD (as of 13 February 2018)[4]
Website
Websitebitcoincash.org
  1. ^ The code "BCC" is also used on several exchanges.
  2. ^ from July 2016 to approximately June 2020, halved approximately every four years

Bitcoin Cash is a hard fork of the cryptocurrency bitcoin. The bitcoin scalability debate led to the hard fork on August 1, 2017, which resulted in the creation of a new blockchain.[5][6]

History

Idea forms

On July 20, 2017 at block height 476768 the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 91 was locked in, i.e. scheduled to activate at block height 477120.[7][8][9] It was designed to force miners to vote for Segregated Witness.

Some members of the bitcoin community felt that adopting BIP 91 without increasing the block-size limit favored people who wanted to treat bitcoin as a digital investment rather than as a transactional currency.[10][11]

The plan to do a hard fork was first announced by Bitmain. The project was originally referred to as UAHF: A contingency plan against UASF (BIP148) by Bitmain on their corporate blog, which the ASIC bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer would launch if BIP 148 (a User Activated Soft Fork) succeeded.[12] Subsequently, some developers took interest in the project.[13] The Bitcoin Cash name was originally proposed by Chinese mining pool ViaBTC.[13][14]

A stated goal of the fork was to increase the number of transactions its ledger can process by increasing the block size limit to eight megabytes.[15][16] CoinDesk said that these motivations might have been behind the development and launch of Bitcoin Cash:[17]

  • Some users wanted an increase in bitcoin's block size limit parameter
  • SegWit was likely to activate and some users wanted to avoid the feature
  • The likelihood that SegWit2x would not launch in 2017

Development

The first implementation of the Bitcoin Cash protocol called Bitcoin ABC was revealed by Amaury "Deadal Nix" Séchet at the Future of Bitcoin conference in Arnhem, Netherlands.[13] The Bitcoin Cash hard fork was announced to take place on August 1, 2017.

Launch

Upon launch, Bitcoin Cash inherited the transaction history of the bitcoin cryptocurrency on that date, but all later transactions were separate. Block 478558 was the last common block and thus the first Bitcoin Cash block was 478559.[18] Bitcoin Cash cryptocurrency wallet started to reject BTC block and BTC transactions since 13:20 UTC, August 1, 2017 because it used a timer to initiate a fork. It implements a block size increase to 8 MB. One exchange started Bitcoin Cash futures trading at 0.5 BTC on July 23; the futures dropped to 0.1 BTC by July 30. Market cap appeared since 23:15 UTC, August 1, 2017.[11][19]

Move of hashpower and change to difficulty

On August 9, 2017 it was 30% more profitable to mine on the BTC chain.[20] As both chains use the same proof-of-work algorithm, miners can easily move their hashpower between the two. As of August 30, 2017 around 1,500 more blocks were mined on the Bitcoin Cash chain than on the original one[21] as the high profitability periods[22] attracted a significant proportion of total processing power.[23] Due to the new Emergency Difficulty Adjustment (EDA) algorithm used by Bitcoin Cash,[24] mining difficulty fluctuated rapidly, and the most profitable chain to mine switched repeatedly between Bitcoin Cash and mainline bitcoin.

A fix for these difficulty, hashrate, and profitability fluctuations was introduced on November 13, 2017 at 7:06 p.m. UTC.[25] The EDA algorithm has been replaced with a new difficulty adjustment algorithm (DAA) that hopes to prevent extreme fluctuations in difficulty while still allowing Bitcoin Cash to adapt to hashrate changes faster than the original bitcoin algorithm adjusting the difficulty every 2016 blocks.[26]

Market acceptance and naming

Cryptocurrency exchanges

Bitcoin Cash has been broadly adopted by digital currency exchanges. Exchanges such as Coinbase,[27] CEX.IO,[28] Kraken,[29] ShapeShift[14] and many others use the Bitcoin Cash name and the BCH ticker symbol for the cryptocurrency. Bitstamp and Bitfinex temporarily used the name Bcash,[30][31] but after being criticized, they switched the name back to Bitcoin Cash.[32][33]

Bittrex,[34] Binance,[35] and Huobi exchange[36] use BCC as Bitcoin Cash's ticker symbol instead.

Cryptocurrency wallets

While the alphanumeric address style is the same as mainline bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) should not be sent to a bitcoin (BTC) address. Like mainline bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash addresses can be used more than once, but should not be reused if privacy is a concern. However, there are plans to change the address format.[37]

Cryptocurrency wallets such as the Ledger hardware wallet,[38] KeepKey hardware wallet,[39] Electron Cash software wallet,[40] Bitcoin.com software wallet[41] and many others use the name Bitcoin Cash for the cryptocurrency, using either BCH or BCC ticker symbol for it.

Trezor hardware wallet supports Bitcoin Cash.[42]

Supporters

Notable supporters of Bitcoin Cash include investor Roger Ver and entrepreneur Calvin Ayre.[10][43]

Tax implications

Americans wondering whether their acquisition of Bitcoin Cash is taxable as income, or not taxable as a division of property, have received no guidance from the Internal Revenue Service.[44]

See also

References

  1. ^ Hertig, Alyssa (August 1, 2017). "Bitcoin Cash: Who Supports the Fork And Who Doesn't". CoinDesk. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  2. ^ "Bitcoin Cash Block 0". blockchair.com. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  3. ^ "Bitcoin Cash Block 1". blockchair.com. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  4. ^ "Cryptocurrency Market Capitalizations". coinmarketcap.com. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  5. ^ Tepper, Fitz (2 August 2017). "WTF is bitcoin cash and is it worth anything?". TechCrunch.
  6. ^ Smith, Jake. "The Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork Will Show Us Which Coin Is Best". Fortune. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  7. ^ Crosbie, Jack (July 26, 2017). "When Will Bitcoin Fork, and What's It Mean for Crypto's Future? A fork could change the equation for thousands of bitcoin users". Inverse. Retrieved July 29, 2017. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  8. ^ Aaron van Wirdum (July 20, 2017). "BIP 91 Has Locked In. Here's What That Means (and What It Does Not)". Bitcoin Magazine. Retrieved July 29, 2017. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  9. ^ Hertig, Alyssa (July 21, 2017). "BIP 91 Locks In: What This Means for Bitcoin and Why It's Not Scaled Yet". CoinDesk. Retrieved July 29, 2017.
  10. ^ a b Popper, Nathaniel (2017-07-25). "Some Bitcoin Backers Are Defecting to Create a Rival Currency". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-07-28.
  11. ^ a b Wong, Joon Ian. "There's a strange new twist in bitcoin's "civil war"—and a way to bet on the outcome". Quartz. Retrieved 2017-07-28.
  12. ^ admin (14 June 2017). "UAHF: A contingency plan against UASF (BIP148)". Bitmain Corporate Blog.
  13. ^ a b c van Wirdum, Aaron (27 July 2017). "The Future of "Bitcoin Cash:" An Interview with Bitcoin ABC lead developer Amaury Séchet". Bitcoin Magazine.
  14. ^ a b van Wirdum, Aaron (7 August 2017). "Bitcoin Cash or Bcash: What's in a Name?". BitcoinMagazine.
  15. ^ Nakamura, Yuri; Kharif, Olga (4 December 2017). "Battle for 'True' Bitcoin Is Just Getting Started". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  16. ^ Nguyen, Jimmy. "All Merchants Want For Christmas Should Be Bitcoin Cash". Huffington Post. Retrieved 24 December 2017.
  17. ^ Hertig, Alyssa. "Bitcoin Cash: Why It's Forking the Blockchain And What That Means". CoinDesk. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
  18. ^ "Fork Watch: Block 478558 Initiates 'Bitcoin Cash' Split – First Blocks Now Mined - Bitcoin News". 1 August 2017.
  19. ^ "Bitcoin Cash (BCH) price, charts, market cap, and other metrics - CoinMarketCap". coinmarketcap.com.
  20. ^ "Coin Dance - Bitcoin Cash Block Details". 8 August 2017. Archived from the original on 8 August 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  21. ^ "fork.lol". fork.lol.
  22. ^ "fork.lol". fork.lol.
  23. ^ "fork.lol". fork.lol.
  24. ^ "Technical specifications". 12 November 2017 – via GitHub.
  25. ^ "Bitcoin ABC - Home". Bitcoin ABC - Home.
  26. ^ Rizzo, Pete (13 November 2017). "Bitcoin Cash Hard Forks In Bid to Ease Mining Difficulties". CoinDesk. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  27. ^ "Coinbase - Buy/Sell Digital Currency". coinbase.com. Retrieved 2017-12-20.
  28. ^ "CEX.IO blog". cex.io. {{cite web}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
  29. ^ KrakenFX. "Bitcoin Cash and a Critical Alert for Bitcoin Margin Traders". kraken.com. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  30. ^ van Wirdum, Aaron (7 August 2017). "Bitcoin Cash or Bcash: What's in a Name?". Bitcoin Magazine.
  31. ^ Young, Joseph (6 December 2017). "Bitstamp Criticized For Listing Bitcoin Cash as Bcash, Despite Community Outrage". CoinTelegraph.
  32. ^ "Bitstamp". bitstamp.net. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  33. ^ "Bitfinex". bitfinex.com. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  34. ^ "Cryptocurrency Exchange - Bittrex.com". www.bittrex.com. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  35. ^ "Cryptocurrency Exchanges-Binance.com". binance.com. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  36. ^ "Statement about Huobi's attitude to BTC and Bitcoin Cash". huobi.com. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  37. ^ "linuxfoundation.org". linuxfoundation.org.
  38. ^ "Cryptocurrencies". ledgerwallet.com. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  39. ^ "Bitcoin Cash Update 8/29/17". keepkey.com. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  40. ^ "Electron Cash". electroncash.org. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  41. ^ "Get a Free Wallet". bitcoin.com. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  42. ^ "Which coins are currently supported?". satoshilabs.com. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  43. ^ Suberg, William (18 October 2017). "Bitcoin Jesus, Calvin Ayre Media Say Bitcoin Cash Is The Only Blockchain". The Coin Telegraph.
  44. ^ Saunders, Laura (25 August 2017). "No One Knows How Much to Pay in Bitcoin Cash Taxes". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
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