I have never given BCH a thought until recently when I started publishing on read.cash.
The main reason being that I never liked the way they seemed to want to present Bitcoin Cash as Bitcoin.
I am of the opinion that there's no single cryptocurrency that is "perfect by design".
And anyone can create their own coin that "better" solves the same or different problem as Bitcoin.
But anything that "appears" misleading doesn't always go down well with me.
So I followed the short-cut to sanity, "ignoring" the project.
But that has changed since I got closer to it, and interact with it more often now.
Which leads me to this article.
What is Bitcoin Cash (BCH)?
"Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is Bitcoin but cheaper and faster to send".
Or that it is how I understand it perceives itself.
It is a fork of Bitcoin, created out of the need to increase the block size and number of transactions per second. As well as reducing transaction costs.
"We are focused on using Bitcoin as money — as peer to peer cash" ~ Jonald.
If you want to read more about the "story", click here to check out this article by one of the founding members.
You will gain some positive insight into what BCH was, is, and currently working on becoming.
The case for adoption
As you might already know, the primary aim of Bitcoin Cash is to maintain the original vision of Satoshi. Which is; to be electronic peer-to-peer cash.
They feel Bitcoin has shifted from this vision. And adopted another narrative of digital gold and store of value.
BCH wants to be the currency you use in paying for your daily cup of coffee, flight tickets, and everything else.
Everything you currently do with cash right now is what BCH aims for you to use it for. A perfect replacement for the dying fiat.
But is it making any headway in this adoption drive?
Let's highlight some of the facts:
...according to map.bitcoin.com 7,500 + merchants are accepting BCH as payments. Some are major brands such as the Burger King chain in Slovenia... ~source
Compared to Dash's 4,800 accepting the DASH coin globally, I think this is impressive.
...in addition to the support of the biggest companies in the industry (Coinbase, Bitpay), Paypal has recently announced the addition of Bitcoin Cash to their platform along with other major cryptocurrencies. There has been increasing demand in the Grayscale Bitcoin Cash trust... ~source
...BCH powers a growing ecosystem of valuable websites like EatBCH – a Bitcoin-Cash-driven charity that feeds people in Venezuela and South Sudan. Venezuelaworkers –a freelancing marketplace specializing in crypto payments in the Venezuelan market. Read.Cash – a content publishing platform with built-in tipping in Bitcoin Cash. It has thousands of contributors and articles and continues to grow... ~source
What can the BCH community do better to drive this adoption forward?
As a former no-BCHner I think the community needs to:
Stop projecting BCH as BTC, to especially newbies. Or remove any "appearance" of creating that perception because it looks dubious. And whoever discover the differences will naturally hate BCH.
Stop making it a BTC vs BCH argument because you will never win. Even if BCH is superior to BTC, the market will never buy that if you keep going that way. Promote BCH without antagonising BTC. In fact, if you can find a point of collaboration, kind of like how Binance is dealing with Ethereum. Or better still promote BCH as BCH and stop pinning yourself against BTC. That is a battle that you will always lose, if not for anything for lack or originality. BCH can grow and thrive without BTC dying. You get my point.
Focus on building real-life use cases for the coin as you're already doing and developing the technology. Adoption is a product of development not the development. And this will take time, so you can be fast but avoid being in a hurry.
Conclusion
The major drawback for BCH has been the "us vs them" attitude.
It's a distraction and no project will go far with the community that way.
If you doubt me, ask TRX and Justin Sun.
That project will never smell even the left-over volume from Ethereum because rather than building collaboratively (like Binance) they are selling themselves as adversary of Ethereum.
Good luck trying to convince the market that it is irration and stupid by choosing Ethereum or Bitcoin. Because that is what it means when you pin yourself against them.
And you know, nobody will admit to you they're foolish, even if they know they are.
Focus on building solid use cases for BCH and develop the underlying technology and promote its benefits. Then wait as the adoption happens.
Having real-life use cases is always the right way towards mass adoption. And also, just the fact that I could send BCH these days without having to pay a $10 fee like I had to with Bitcoin is really good for transactions.