With my last article, I feel like I spread a little bit of negativity about Bitcoin Cash, but I was just stating my concerns for the future of it, considering the current state of development and the community. Now coming to the third anniversary of when Bitcoin Cash forked, I thought it would be nice to look back at what we have achieved over its history, and why there still is a lot of potential for the future, because Bitcoin Cash is NOT dead, and there's still hope of it scaling for mass adoption. Looking back, I never really took Bitcoin Cash seriously, and this did not help after the crash of 2018, and the hash wars. I only started paying attention to Bitcoin Cash back in the second half of 2019 when I started thinking about the trade-offs between larger and smaller blocks. I eventually came to the realization that blocks would eventually need to increase, and low fees are necessary for mass adoption.
On August 1st, 2017, Bitcoin Cash forked off from Bitcoin as a result of disagreement within the community. At the time of the fork, it was only worth ~$220, and now that number has gone up to $330. A pretty big increase even over the course of 3 years, and especially great when one considers the fact that a lot of FUD was surrounding it and the hashwars took place (resulting in a split). I think the day Bitcoin Cash forked off is significant because it was right before the deployment of SegWit, giving miners an alternative if they were not in support of it, and it was the only attempt for Bitcoiners to bring bigger blocks to Bitcoin that managed to succeed. The first attempt at bigger blocks was BitcoinXT, which failed to deploy, followed by Bitcoin Classic, Bitcoin Unlimited, and finally Bitcoin 2X (SegWit 2X). All of these failed to activate, but the one that emerged was Bitcoin Cash. This marks the day when "big-blockers" were finally given the chance to succeed and work on on-chain scaling.
Though I was not part of the community back in 2017, we have done a lot since then that goes under-appreciated by the rest of the community (both Bitcoin Cash and Crypto), and I think it would be encouraging to take a look at how far we have come, and all of our accomplishments. In the last 3 years, we have:
Forked off right before SegWit was activated, giving miners who agreed to SegWit 2X an alternative in case it failed to activate (which it did)
Upgraded to 8 MB, and then 32 MB blocks, allowing for PayPal levels of scaling on a decentralized, peer-to-peer network
Fixed transaction malleability with the Schnorr signatures hardfork, which completely and provably solved malleability, unlike SegWit
Managed to stay in the top 5 coins for the last 3 years, despite all the FUD, misinformation, the fact that two of the biggest crypto exchanges dumped their customers' Bitcoin Cash (Xapo and Bitfinex), and the hash war, which resulted in a 60-40 split between Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV
Added SLP tokens to Bitcoin Cash, allowing for multiple use-cases including, but not limited to: asset hedging, digitally representing stocks and commodities, the ability to give out tokens that yield dividends, and the ability to make stablecoins
Added non-fungible tokens, which allows for digital proof-of-ownership, and the ability to make non-fungible tokens for other use-cases such as concert and movie tickets
The ability to send completely encrypted messages through IPFS and Bitcoin Cash, allowing for more use-cases such as privacy and whistle-blowing without fear of attack
Come out with the first implementation of Bitcoin Cash wallet, Electron Cash with built in privacy including the new privacy protocol, CashFusion
Officially gotten Tether as an SLP token on Bitcoin Cash, making it the most practical way to transport Tether (cheaper than Liquid)
Performed a stress-test in which Bitcoin Cash handled more than 2 million transactions in a day, while transaction fees consistently remained <$0.01, along with many other days in which Bitcoin Cash handled >1 million transactions a day without the fees ever creeping anywhere near a penny
Upgraded to Canonical Transaction Ordering Ruleset, allowing for on-chain scaling to work more efficiently
Seen XThinner (a new block propagation technology in the works), and its ability to compress blocks far more efficiently than any other block propagation protocol so far (Compact Blocks, XThin, and Graphene)
To think that we have done so much in such a short period of time is amazing to say the least, and I think it shows that this project is far from dead, with a lot more potential in the future. Bitcoin Cash has only existed as a fork for 3 years, and it has already managed to maintain its position in the market, while also innovating every day, and keeping up-to-date. Though what is happening right now may be concerning for many, it is just another blip on the road to making a peer-to-peer cash system with worldwide adoption. That's all.
well written. thank you