Who created Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and why?

In 2017, as Bitcoin’s popularity increased and network fees began to rise, a group of Bitcoin developers proposed a technical solution to support Bitcoin’s use for smaller transactions. In essence, these developers released a new version of Bitcoin’s software that increased the size of Bitcoin’s blockchain (enabling a greater number of transactions to be processed).

The majority group of Bitcoin developers and users disagreed with the software proposal.   A “fork” was created, and Bitcoin Cash became an entirely separate blockchain (although Bitcoin Cash still retained some core features of Bitcoin such as a maximum supply of 21 million coins).

The reason that Bitcoin Cash’s technology was rejected by many Bitcoin developers and users is because a larger blockchain (that can support a greater number of transactions and thus cheaper transactions) comes with a key trade-off. A larger blockchain is harder to validate and store on thousands of computers around the world, which are the foundation of Bitcoin’s decentralized nature (such as ensuring that no individual, company, or organization can tamper with Bitcoin’s blockchain at its core).

When was Bitcoin Cash (BCH) created?

Bitcoin Cash was created as a fork from Bitcoin in 2017.