An Introduction to Bitcoin Cash

As we know that Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency introduced to serve as electronic cash which could be exchanged between the traders without going through any financial system.

As bitcoin became popular, it encountered a few disagreements within the bitcoin community, due to which there was a need for an alternative to bitcoin. Let us see what it is, how it works etc.

What is bitcoin cash?

Bitcoin cash is an upgraded version of bitcoin, which was meant to increase the capacity of bitcoin by increasing the size of its blockchain through a hard fork. A larger size of blockchain means a large number of transaction validations at a time with a reduced transaction cost.

History of Bitcoin Cash

In 2015, when there was a need to increase the capacity of blocks in the blockchains, two different opinions in the crypto community were observed. One was in favor of keeping the block-size small, while others supported the increase in its size. As a result, a new cryptocurrency was launched called bitcoin unlimited. But soon the bitcoin unlimited was hacked.

Finally, in August 2017, with the collaborative efforts of the bitcoin community and bitmain developers, a new cryptocurrency was launched called ‘Bitcoin Cash’ providing 8 MB of block size which was further increased to 32 MB.

In 2018, Bitcoin-Cash was further split into two, one was Bitcoin Cash ABC and the other was Bitcoin SV (SV stands for Satoshi Version).

This difference in opinions is also termed as the civil war in the crypto-world.

What is Bitcoin Cash used for?

• To enable a large number of transactions at the same time.
• To reduce the cost of transactions.
• To enhance scalability.
• Like bitcoin it is bitcoin cash is also built on peer-to-peer blockchain technology.
• It also provides a limited supply of 21 million coins.
• Naturally, being a cryptocurrency, it is used as an asset for online trade.

What’s the difference between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash?

• Bitcoin is denoted by BTC and Bitcoin cash is denoted by BTH.
• The size of the block of Bitcoin Cash is more than that of Bitcoin. Bitcoin’s block size is 1MB-2MB, while that of Bitcoin cash is 1MB-8MB.
• Both of them have different marker caps.
• BTC supports the segwit (segregated witnesses) while BTH doesn’t.

Concerns about Bitcoin Cash

• The functionality of larger blocks is yet to be tested.
• Susceptible to troubled economies.
• In terms of transaction levels, bitcoin still leads the bitcoin-cash.
• The second fork of bitcoin-cash has brought serious concerns like the incorporation of smart contracts and management of developer pools.
• Bitcoin-cash seems to be centralized in the development teams.

Final Thoughts

We have analyzed various aspects of Bitcoin as well as Bitcoin-Cash. We have also learned about the history revealing the clashes of development of forks of bitcoin and bitcoin cash. To know more about how the bitcoin cash works, how to buy it, what are its advantages and disadvantages etc. we’ll be coming up with another block. So, wait until then and keep yourself updated.