Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was created to be an alternative to Bitcoin, something for everyday transactions if Crypto becomes widely accepted as a currency one day.
The number of transactions that can be processed every second is an important measuring stick. For example, Visa credit cards process around 2000 transactions per second, and can handle a lot more. Bitcoin maxes out at about 7 transactions per second. This rate is fine if Crypto is only ever going to be used infrequently to buy something like a Lamborghini, but not if it needs to be flexible enough to also pay for an Uber or purchase get groceries.
Bitcoin Cash, with the capacity to support more than 100 transactions per second, is helping to show that Crypto could one day be a viable option even at the checkout line.
Quick facts
Bitcoin Cash is a “hard fork”, or branching off, of Bitcoin that eventually became its own separate Crypto due to philosophical differences about the purpose of Bitcoin.
While Bitcoin can process about 7 transactions per second, Bitcoin Cash can support more than 100 transactions per second.
What Does Bitcoin Cash Do?
Bitcoin Cash was officially released in August 2017. Its technology is very similar to Bitcoin, and there is also the same amount of coins — 21 million.
Anyone that held Bitcoin on the day that Bitcoin Cash was created automatically received free Bitcoin Cash! The fortunate people who were holding Bitcoin received Bitcoin Cash at a ration of 1:1. Yes, that’s right! If you were holding 1 Bitcoin at the time Bitcoin Cash was formed, you would have instantly received 1 Bitcoin Cash.
One of the more common answers to the question "what is Bitcoin Cash?" is that the main purpose of Bitcoin Cash is to be used as a payment system. This means that, just like the original Bitcoin client, people can send and receive funds. However, Bitcoin Cash’s technology allows for much faster transaction times, and lower transaction fees!
Many people thought that those who received their free Bitcoin Cash would sell it as soon as they could, but this hasn’t been the case. Since it was released in August 2017, Bitcoin Cash has performed very well. It is currently a top 5 cryptocurrency and is also listed on Coinbase.
Being listed on Coinbase is a huge deal as they are the most popular and well-known exchanges in the world! Coinbase only lists 4 different cryptocurrencies, so the fact that they have listed Bitcoin Cash improves the credibility and awareness around the project.
Because the cryptocurrency is still in its early days, there are not many merchants that accept it yet, especially in comparison to Bitcoin. However, as Bitcoin Cash becomes more and more popular, new merchants are starting to accept it as a payment method.
There is a cool website called AcceptBitcoinCash which lists all the different merchants that allow you to use Bitcoin Cash. They include things like accommodation, music, casinos, perfume, fitnessproducts, clothes and much more! Guess what? If you live in South Africa, you can even pay for legal advice with Bitcoin Cash!
Bitcoin Cash is doing good. Hoping for the best. It is the real deal, Bitcoin Cash is the future.
