The Bitcoin Cash Journey: From launch to present day
The Bitcoin Cash (BCH) cryptocurrency has had a wild ride since its launch in August 2017. A relatively new player in the game, BCH offers some unique and compelling features that allow it to be used by both merchants and individuals alike. Even though it’s only been around for less than two years, BCH has quickly become one of the most valuable cryptocurrencies available on the market today, and its value continues to rise steadily. This article takes an in-depth look at how BCH came into existence, from its first use as Bitcoin ABC 0.1 all the way up to present day and beyond.
The 4 phases
1. Pre-Launch: In the months leading up to the launch of Bitcoin Cash, there was a lot of excitement and speculation about what it would mean for the future of cryptocurrency. One interesting prediction is that Bitcoin Cash will be worth $2,000 USD by 2022
Bitcoin Cash has been able to bring together various different camps with different views on scaling that were at each other’s throats just months ago. There are some who believe in big blocks only, while others want to increase block size gradually. Some want low fees and fast transactions, while others are more interested in features like smart contracts or privacy features. All of these groups have been working together so far because they share one common goal - moving forward with Bitcoin Cash as the world's premier digital currency . There is still plenty of work to do, but the potential for what can be accomplished when everyone works together towards a shared goal is huge.
Phase 1. August 1, 2017 - April 5, 2018
On August 1, 2017, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was created as a fork of the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain. The new cryptocurrency inherited BTC's transaction history, meaning that anyone who held BTC at the time of the fork became an owner of an equal amount of BCH. While BCH had many of the same characteristics as BTC, including a maximum limit on how many transactions could be processed per second and the presence of Segregated Witness (SegWit), it also introduced several key changes. It raised the maximum block size from one megabyte to eight megabytes and adopted a more conservative approach with regard to hard forks. For example, it didn't adopt SegWit until November 15th, 2018 when it activated in conjunction with Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 91 (BIP91). On May 15th, 2018, BCH underwent its first scheduled hard fork with the introduction of Bitcoin ABC 0.18.0 which included all of these features plus other optimizations and bug fixes. All blocks mined after this date are incompatible with older versions of the software and cannot work together. However, nodes running pre-hardfork Bitcoin Cash can still function normally even if they don’t upgrade their code. As such, the process for the hard fork is more democratic than it would have been for BTC because there is no need for 95% consensus among miners in order to implement protocol upgrades.
Phase 2. April 6, 2018 - June 29, 2018
On April 6, 2018, Bitcoin Cash underwent a hard fork that split the cryptocurrency into two separate tokens - Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin SV (BSV). The fork was the result of a long-standing debate over how to scale the Bitcoin network. While both sides claimed to be the true Bitcoin, BCH became the more popular version following the fork. In the months that followed, BCH experienced rapid growth, reaching a peak market cap of over $30 billion in June 2018. However, during this time, BSV had also increased in value. Then on November 15th, BSV underwent its own hard fork as it tried to upgrade its mining algorithm but failed due to technical difficulties. All BSV transactions were suspended until December 13th when some miners restarted mining the token. At this point, the price of BSV dropped significantly and is now worth less than half of what it was at its height. Meanwhile, the price of BCH has decreased by around 50% since then. Nowadays, while they are still both valuable cryptocurrencies with their own supporters, they are struggling to reach the levels they were before the hard forks took place. Despite its recent downtrend, BTC currently trades at a market cap of just under $140 billion. Meanwhile, BCH's market cap has fallen below $3 billion and only trades at 0.2% of BTC's price per coin ($259 vs. $6374). BSV remains strong at over $1 billion but its price is down from an all-time high of $135 to about $20. As for adoption, Bitcoin SV continues to see very little merchant acceptance while most retailers use BCH instead.
Phase 3. July 1, 2018 - November 14, 2018
On July 1, 2018, Bitcoin Cash underwent a hard fork, resulting in the creation of two new cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin ABC and Bitcoin SV. While both projects share the same basic codebase, they have different philosophies regarding how the protocol should be upgraded. The purpose of this post is not to compare or criticize either project; rather, it’s just important that investors understand there are potential risks associated with investing in either one. I believe that both teams have good intentions for the future of Bitcoin Cash, but there's a possibility that we'll need to eventually choose between one of them if there's an irreconcilable disagreement about upgrades. To help you make an informed decision about which team to support, I suggest reading up on what each team stands for by clicking on their respective links below. As mentioned earlier, this post is meant to provide background information only; it's not intended as investment advice. You're always welcome to contact me privately for professional advice.
Phase 4. November 15, 2018 - Present Day
In the two years since its launch, Bitcoin Cash has undergone a lot of changes. The most notable change came in November of 2018, when a hard fork split the currency into two separate coins: Bitcoin Cash ABC and Bitcoin Cash SV. While both versions of the coin are still being traded, ABC has become the more popular of the two. There are also many indications that this trend will continue.
* Bitcoin cash is currently ranked number 4 on CoinMarketCap, with a market cap over $2 billion USD.* * A recent study showed that 75% of bitcoin cash nodes were running from machines hosted by Antpool.* * There is also evidence that BCH adoption is increasing quickly. It’s estimated that there are now 500 BCH-accepting merchants worldwide.* *In June 2019, the first all-inclusive conference dedicated to Bitcoin Cash was held in New York City. Over 300 people attended the event.* *This is only just scratching the surface of what's happening with Bitcoin Cash - it's growing fast! Stay tuned for future updates!
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