Overnight, thousands of Bitcoin owners saw their wealth go up significantly due to a simple change - Coinbase started showing balances of Bitcoin cash in peoples' wallets. While these people always owned some Bitcoin cash, most "non-techy" owners had no idea and didn't know what to make of their newfound wealth.
So, what happened? What is Bitcoin Cash? How is it different from Bitcoin, and how can you invest in it?
While there have been some hiccups on day 1 of Bitcoin Cash really being widely accepted, there is still an opportunity to get in on this cryptocurrency - and it could even compete with what investors have been seeing with the original Bitcoin (and other coins, such as Ethereum and Litecoin).
Before you get started with Bitcoin Cash, you need a digital wallet. I recommend Coinbase, which i will discuss a bit more down below.
What Is Bitcoin Cash?
Bitcoin Cash is a hard fork from the original Bitcoin blockchain. This split occurred on August 1, 2017.
If you're new to cryptocurrency investing, a hard fork is essentially a split from the original blockchain. Think of it like the Catholic Church - if you go back in time, there were multiple "hard forks" along the way. Some of the biggest include Protestantism splitting from Catholicism. This is very similar.
Both Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash use the same algorithm (i.e. Bible), but they have different ways of interpreting it. Once they split, Bitcoin Cash uses its protocol, while Bitcoin uses it's protocol.
How Bitcoin Cash Is Different
In technical terms, Bitcoin Cash wanted larger block sizes than Bitcoin - they increased the block size to 8MB. However, all else is pretty much the same.
The last common block of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash was Block 478558. At that split, any owners of Bitcoin (on the blockchain) also received an equal value of Bitcoin Cash. That's where the surprise came from this morning. Any holders of Bitcoin at that split received Bitcoin Cash.
But that Bitcoin Cash wasn't easily available to non-tech savvy investors, until today when Coinbase put Bitcoin Cash onto it's wallet publicly.
Bitcoin Cash is much cheaper than Bitcoin. Currently, it's about 75% cheaper, however, the price has skyrocketed lately:
How To Invest In Bitcoin Cash
If you're looking to invest in Bitcoin Cash, it's important to remember that Bitcoin Cash is a currency. This means it doesn't act like a stock or bond. Instead of buying shares of Bitcoin Cash, you are swapping your currency for Bitcoin Cash currency.
For example, $1 USD is equal to about $4,329 in Bitcoin Cash today. The goal is for the value of Bitcoin Cash to rise, in which case, you could exchange your coins back to dollars (from someone willing to do the exchange).
So, where can you do this? Sadly, you can't invest in Bitcoin Cash at your stock broker. Instead, you need a digital wallet like Coinbase which allows you to buy and sell Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin all in the app.
Since Coinbase is also a digital wallet, you can use your wallet to buy, sell, send, and receive Bitcoin Cash as well (for example, using Bitcoin Cash to pay for goods or services online).
Join Bitcoin cash today and enjoy some wonderful benefits!
Oh really, why can we really invest in bitcoin cash