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{{short description|cryptocurrency}}
{{short description|cryptocurrency}}
{{neutrality|date=April 2018}}
{{neutrality|date=April 2018}}
{{lead too short|date=April 2018}}
{{infobox cryptocurrency
{{infobox cryptocurrency
| currency_name = Bitcoin Cash
| currency_name = Bitcoin Cash

Revision as of 13:31, 20 April 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 (15 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 rateDecrease 994.62 USD (as of 10 March 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 cryptocurrency and worldwide decentralized payment system that works without a central bank or government.[5] In mid-2017, Bitcoin Cash split the main Bitcoin blockchain creating a diversion in blockchains. The change, called a hard fork, took effect on August 1, 2017.[6] As a result, the bitcoin ledger called the blockchain and the cryptocurrency split in two.[7][8] At the time of the fork anyone owning bitcoin was also in possession of the same number of Bitcoin Cash units.[9] The reason the split happened is because Bitcoin users were not content with the state of the Bitcoin scaling debate specifically where Bitcoin Core developers decided to attempt to resolve the scaling debate through the use of the controversial Segregated Witness code change and the use of pre-alpha technology such as the Lightning Network.

History

In May 2017, bitcoin transactions took up to four days to complete.[10] In order to speed transactions, users could pay a transaction fee, which at the end of 2017 averaged about $28.[10] The delay and especially the fees made bitcoin impractical for everyday use to make small purchases.[11]

Idea forms

Up until July 2017, bitcoin users maintained a common set of rules for the cryptocurrency.[12] On July 20, 2017 at block height 476768 Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 91 was locked in (i.e. scheduled to activate at block height 477120).[13][14] It was designed to reject blocks created by miners not supporting Segregated Witness.[13][14]

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[12][15] and devised a plan to increase the number of transactions its ledger can process by increasing the block size limit to eight megabytes.[16][17] CoinDesk said that these motivations might have been behind the development and launch of Bitcoin Cash:[18]

  • 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

The Bitcoin Cash name was originally proposed by Chinese mining pool ViaBTC.[19][20]

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.[19] Subsequently, Bitcoin Unlimited made its first release of Bitcoin Cash compatible software, named BUCash[21] and Bitcoin XT also released before the Bitcoin Cash fork.[22] This meant that 3 full node clients were available before the Bitcoin Cash hard fork on August 1, 2017.

These clients implemented the following changes from bitcoin:

  • Increase maximum block size to 8 megabytes.
  • Modification of the transaction signature hashing algorithm. This provides replay protection for Bitcoin Cash transactions against the original bitcoin chain.
  • Replaced the original bitcoin difficulty algorithm (a difficulty adjustment every 2016 blocks), with the new Emergency Difficulty Adjustment (EDA) algorithm. EDA was intended to allow difficulty to more quickly respond to drastic drops in hashrate presumed to occur immediately post fork.

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 separate Bitcoin Cash block was 478559.[23] Bitcoin Cash cryptocurrency wallets started to reject bitcoin blocks and bitcoin transactions after 13:20 UTC, August 1, 2017 because it used a timer to initiate a fork. 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.[15][24] Per the coinmarketcap.com site, the price of BTC on August 1, 2017 was USD$2,718.26[25] and the price of BCH was USD$380.01,[26] which suggests the BCH split ratio to be 0.12265. The launch of Bitcoin Cash has created an ideological divide over which chain is the true bitcoin.[27][28]

Move of hashpower and difficulty adjustment

On August 9, 2017 it was 30% more profitable to mine on the bitcoin chain.[29] 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[30] as the high profitability periods[31] attracted a significant proportion of total processing power.[32] Due to the new Emergency Difficulty Adjustment (EDA) algorithm used by Bitcoin Cash,[33] 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.[34] 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.[35]

Market acceptance and naming

By the end of August 1, 2017, Bitcoin Cash became the third largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization.[10]

Cryptocurrency exchanges

Bitcoin Cash has been adopted by digital currency exchanges. Exchanges such as Coinbase,[36] CEX.IO,[37] Kraken,[38] ShapeShift[20] and many others use the Bitcoin Cash name and the BCH ticker symbol for the cryptocurrency. Bitstamp and Bitfinex temporarily used the name Bcash,[39][40] but after being criticized, they switched the name back to Bitcoin Cash.[41][42]

Bittrex,[43] Binance,[44] and Huobi exchange[45] use BCC as Bitcoin Cash's ticker symbol instead. BCC is more commonly used as the ticker symbol for Bitconnect.[20]

Cryptocurrency wallets

A Bitcoin Cash wallet on a mobile phone

Cryptocurrency wallets such as the Ledger hardware wallet,[46] KeepKey hardware wallet,[47] Electron Cash software wallet[48] and Bitcoin.com software wallet[49] use the name Bitcoin Cash for the cryptocurrency, using either BCH or BCC ticker symbol for it. Trezor hardware wallet supports Bitcoin Cash too.[50] Blockchain.info is one of the largest bitcoin wallet providers. They integrated Bitcoin Cash a few months after its fork.[51]

Support

Notable supporters of Bitcoin Cash include investor Roger Ver,[12] entrepreneur Calvin Ayre,[52] developer Gavin Andresen,[53] and entrepreneur Rick Falkvinge.[54]

Vitalik Buterin has indicated his views on the legitimacy of Bitcoin Cash in a series of tweets, saying it is "a legitimate contender for the bitcoin name" and "I consider bitcoin's *failure* to raise block sizes to keep fees reasonable to be a large (non-consensual) change to the 'original plan'..."[55]. Gavin Andresen has indicated his support for Bitcoin Cash as he emphasised its property as a medium of exchange.[56][57]

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 10 March 2018.
  5. ^ Smith, Oli (21 January 2018). "Bitcoin price RIVAL: Cryptocurrency 'faster than bitcoin' will CHALLENGE market leaders". Express. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  6. ^ Smith, Jake (11 August 2017). "The Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork Will Show Us Which Coin Is Best". Forbes. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  7. ^ Larson, Selena (1 August 2017). "Bitcoin split in two, here's what that means". CNN. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
  8. ^ Thieme, Nick (4 August 2017). "Bitcoin Has Split Into Two Cryptocurrencies. What, Exactly, Does That Mean?". Slate. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  9. ^ Selena Larson (1 August 2017). "Bitcoin split in two, here's what that means". CNN Tech. Cable News Network. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  10. ^ a b c "What is Bitcoin Cash?". Cointelegraph. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  11. ^ Annie Nova (2 March 2017). "Bitcoin takes on cash, as more places accept the cryptocurrenc". CNBC. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  12. ^ a b c Popper, Nathaniel (July 25, 2017). "Some Bitcoin Backers Are Defecting to Create a Rival Currency". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
  13. ^ a b 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)
  14. ^ a b 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.
  15. ^ a b Wong, Joon Ian (July 25, 2017). "There's a strange new twist in bitcoin's "civil war"—and a way to bet on the outcome". Quartz. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
  16. ^ Nakamura, Yuri; Kharif, Olga (4 December 2017). "Battle for 'True' Bitcoin Is Just Getting Started". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  17. ^ Nguyen, Jimmy. "All Merchants Want For Christmas Should Be Bitcoin Cash". Huffington Post. Retrieved 24 December 2017.
  18. ^ Hertig, Alyssa. "Bitcoin Cash: Why It's Forking the Blockchain And What That Means". CoinDesk. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
  19. ^ a b van Wirdum, Aaron (27 July 2017). "The Future of "Bitcoin Cash:" An Interview with Bitcoin ABC lead developer Amaury Séchet". Bitcoin Magazine.
  20. ^ a b c van Wirdum, Aaron (7 August 2017). "Bitcoin Cash or Bcash: What's in a Name?". BitcoinMagazine.
  21. ^ https://github.com/BitcoinUnlimited/BitcoinUnlimitedWebDownloads/commit/40c45b24c785a1d487bff4b43f88bfeffbf6af32
  22. ^ https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-ml/2017-July/000071.html
  23. ^ "Fork Watch: Block 478558 Initiates 'Bitcoin Cash' Split – First Blocks Now Mined - Bitcoin News". 1 August 2017.
  24. ^ "Bitcoin Cash (BCH) price, charts, market cap, and other metrics - CoinMarketCap". coinmarketcap.com.
  25. ^ "Coin Market Capitalizations". coinmarketcap.com. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  26. ^ "Cryptocurrency Market Capitalizations". coinmarketcap.com. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  27. ^ Laura Shin (23 October 2017). "Will This Battle For The Soul Of Bitcoin Destroy It?". Forbes. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  28. ^ What is Bitcoin, “Bubble Territory” or “New Gold”?. Cointelegraph. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  29. ^ "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)
  30. ^ "fork.lol". fork.lol.
  31. ^ "fork.lol". fork.lol.
  32. ^ "fork.lol". fork.lol.
  33. ^ "Technical specifications". 12 November 2017 – via GitHub.
  34. ^ "Bitcoin ABC - Home". Bitcoin ABC - Home.
  35. ^ Rizzo, Pete (13 November 2017). "Bitcoin Cash Hard Forks In Bid to Ease Mining Difficulties". CoinDesk. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  36. ^ "Coinbase - Buy/Sell Digital Currency". coinbase.com. Retrieved 2017-12-20.
  37. ^ "CEX.IO blog". cex.io. {{cite web}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
  38. ^ KrakenFX. "Bitcoin Cash and a Critical Alert for Bitcoin Margin Traders". kraken.com. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  39. ^ van Wirdum, Aaron (7 August 2017). "Bitcoin Cash or Bcash: What's in a Name?". Bitcoin Magazine.
  40. ^ Young, Joseph (6 December 2017). "Bitstamp Criticized For Listing Bitcoin Cash as Bcash, Despite Community Outrage". CoinTelegraph.
  41. ^ "Bitstamp". bitstamp.net. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  42. ^ "Bitfinex". bitfinex.com. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  43. ^ "Cryptocurrency Exchange - Bittrex.com". www.bittrex.com. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  44. ^ "Cryptocurrency Exchanges-Binance.com". binance.com. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  45. ^ "Statement about Huobi's attitude to BTC and Bitcoin Cash". huobi.com. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  46. ^ "Cryptocurrencies". ledgerwallet.com. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  47. ^ "Bitcoin Cash Update 8/29/17". keepkey.com. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  48. ^ "Electron Cash". electroncash.org. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  49. ^ "Get a Free Wallet". bitcoin.com. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  50. ^ "Which coins are currently supported?". satoshilabs.com. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  51. ^ Sterlin Lujan (23 August 2017). "Blockchain.info to Support Bitcoin Cash". Bitcoin.com. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  52. ^ Suberg, William (18 October 2017). "Bitcoin Jesus, Calvin Ayre Media Say Bitcoin Cash Is The Only Blockchain". The Coin Telegraph.
  53. ^ Lee, Timothy B. (20 December 2017). "Bitcoin rival Bitcoin Cash soars as Coinbase adds support". ArsTechnica. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  54. ^ "What if new Google management decided that a search should cost $20, take eight hours, and be deliberately unreliable? (Bitcoin.)". Falvinge on Liberty. 17 November 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  55. ^ JP Buntinx (14 November 2017). "Vitalik Buterin Deems Bitcoin Cash Worthy of Taking the Bitcoin Name". News BTC. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  56. ^ (11 November 2017). Gavin Andresen on Twitter. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  57. ^ Samuel Haig (12 November 2017). "Satoshi Nakamoto's Confidant Gavin Andresen Throws Support Behind Bitcoin Cash". news.bitcoin.com. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
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