Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
Last updated 18/06/2021
Official Website: https://www.bitcoincash.org/
What is Bitcoin Cash (BCH)?
The popularity of Bitcoin grew so fast over the course of 2017 that the network encountered problems with scalability. This increased activity, congested the network and increased the transaction costs, thus leading to the community developing solutions. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is one of the solutions proposed.
Bitcoin Cash is a Hardfork of the Bitcoin network, created as an improvement on its short comings. The fork took place when the community's consensus on the vision and direction of the network split which created a vote between the miners. Both ideas proposed gained enough votes and support to proceed. It is designed as a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) electronic cash system for use as a form of payment. The network is permission-less, decentralised and doesn't require any trusted third party or centralised bank. Bitcoin Cash is cheaper and faster to send than Bitcoin with a greater commercial use.
Team
As with Bitcoin, the Bitcoin Cash network is not developed by just one team but a community of developers improving the open-sourced network for the innovation of the industry. Any individual can submit code to be peer reviewed. The major development groups include Bitcoin ABC, Bitcoin Unlimited, Bitcoin XT and Bitcoin SV which has now deviated from the Bitcoin Cash network through a hardfork on the 15th November 2018.
Bitcoin ABC is a very vocal development group that have rolled out full node implementations of the Bitcoin Cash protocol. Many exchanges and other projects see them as the main developers of the network and seek guidance from them for future upgrades. Bitcoin ABC have a strong focus to create stable money that is used globally in order to drive freedom and prosperity by helping to lead the Bitcoin Cash protocol development, open and collaboratively.
Bitcoin Unlimited is a smaller group of developers that believe scaling the network can come from ongoing increases to the block size. Though this will work to help scale the network, many have thought that increasing on-chain scaling solutions could increase the network difficulty and bandwidth needed greatly.
Roadmap
Bitcoincash.org details a roadmap on their website of all completed, underway and planned technical improvements to the network. This roadmap is intended to provide high-level direction to allow the different technical teams to work together for the advancement of the Bitcoin Cash network. The technical improvements the developers are hoping to achieve are broken down into three main categories.
- Enabling Bitcoin Cash to scale from 100tx/s to over 5,000,000tx/s.
- Instant, secure and reliable payment experience within three seconds.
- Extensible protocol for less disruptive improvements and allows developers and businesses to build on.
Scaling the Network
The Bitcoin Cash protocol increased the block size from 1MB up to 32MB to speed up transactions by allowing more in one block. Every transaction signature on the Bitcoin network is excluded whereas it is added on Bitcoin Cash. The Bitcoin Cash network is trying to scale by including on-chain transactions and ongoing increases to the block size as necessary. The team’s roadmap shows further developments to include an adaptive block size. This block size would change depending on the growth of the market and suggests a 1TB block in the future.
What is a Hardfork?
A hardfork refers to an intense change to the underlying protocol and is an irreversible divergence from the previous blockchain. This creates two identical chains up to the event of the fork in which both continue along their respective blocks according to the protocols. Any nodes or users that wish to follow the new protocol and chain will need to update to the latest version as the old is incompatible.
A hardfork is the only way to update the Bitcoin software by changing the underlying protocol. Due to the nature of a hardfork, a division can be created in the community as developers and teams believe their versions will help improve and innovate the network. The Bitcoin Cash hardfork was implemented after previous attempts to speed up the Bitcoin network failed.
Another major hardfork occurred on the 15 November 2018, when 2 opposing developers proposed plans to scale the BCH network. The two groups composed of Bitcoin ABC (BCH) and Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision (BSV) fought over the direction of the network. Bitcoin ABC proposed the network kept the same basic structure with increases to the block size and minimising transaction costs as depicted through their roadmap. Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision refers to the Bitcoin whitepaper to reinstate original protocols and increasing the block size from 32MB to 128MB for greater capacity and ability to scale.
Mining
The mining functionality in Bitcoin Cash is very similar to the Bitcoin network. The miners solve mathematical equations, mark transactions as genuine and are responsible for new coins and tokens entering the circulation. The miners earn the exact same reward as those on the Bitcoin network, which is currently 12.5 BCH plus the mining fees. This reward is due to half every 4 years, the same as Bitcoin. The bigger blocks in Bitcoin Cash require greater computing power to solve which in turn requires more specialist and powerful mining equipment to compete. The difficulty of the mathematical equation on the Bitcoin Cash network adjusts every 600 seconds to respond to current miner activity.
Where to Store Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
Bitcoincash.org provides many different wallets through their site for the storage of Bitcoin Cash. You can find Mobile, Desktop, Hardware and Paper wallets from over 21 different providers all featured on the site. Most of these wallets are unofficial and developed by the community to improve and provide services on the open-source network. Always conduct your due diligence and research into any wallet provider you are considering using.
Exodus is a commonly used, user-friendly software wallet that can safely store Bitcoin Cash; your wallet addresses are prominently displayed within Exodus for ease of access. There are also hardware wallets such as Ledger to securely store your assets, including BCH. Check out our Wallet Guides page for further information on setting up and using various wallets.
Where to Buy and Sell Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
You can Buy & Sell Bitcoin Cash (BCH) here at BC Bitcoin. You can Buy BCH by heading over to the Buy Coins page of our website. BCH is available on BC Bitcoin trading against major fiat currencies: GBP and EUR. Buying BCH has never been easier, simply place your order and provide your wallet address. Once your payment arrives, BCH will be sent directly to your wallet.
If you choose to Sell Bitcoin Cash (BCH), you can send us the coins and receive a payment to your bank account. Details and a live valuation can be found on the Sell Coins page.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Resources
Bitcoin Cash Website: https://www.bitcoincash.org/
Bitcoin Cash Explorer: https://www.blockchain.com/
Bitcoin Cash GitHub: https://github.com/zquestz/bitcoincash
Bitcoin Whitepaper: https://www.bitcoincash.org/bitcoin.pdf