To understand the distinctions between Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Bitcoin SV, you must first understand what a hard fork is. They explain how Bitcoin was used to build the two latter networks or cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was forked from Bitcoin Cash (BCH) in the same way as Bitcoin SV (Satoshi Vision, BSV) was forked from Bitcoin Cash . In certain cases, BCH and BSV can be considered tweaked variants of BTC.
Hard forks are modifications to a blockchain network that are irreversible or permanent. All previous blocks and transactions become null, or all previous invalid blocks and transactions become legitimate, as a consequence of the process.
People must either switch to the new network or continue on the old network as a result of the new upgrades, but in either case, a permanent divergence occurs, resulting in two networks.
Scalability, affordability, and transaction speed were all requirements for Bitcoin's network.
Bitcoin is the first decentralised, open-source, secure digital currency and payment system with a low transaction cost and a limited supply. Bitcoin was a required and groundbreaking technology, according to its whitepaper, that would solve many of the existing liabilities of traditional fiat currencies and transaction methods:
“What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party.”
Its success rapidly developed into a worldwide phenomenon. As more people entered the mine and transacted with it, developers began to search for new ways to resolve the scalability problem.
Many hard forks have resulted in major improvements, and BCH and BSV are among the best-performing hard forks despite not being in the first ten.
Is Bitcoin Cash the Cryptocurrency's Future?
Over the years, the Bitcoin network has experienced numerous hard forks, with developers attempting to change features that would improve transaction speeds and support various blockchain ecosystem expansions.
Bitcoin Cash is a peer-to-peer Bitcoin hard fork with the aim of rising the amount of transactions per second (TPS) processed on its network and creating a global decentralised payment system.
The hard fork occurred in August 2017 and contains several slight improvements to Bitcoin's source code. Bitcoin developers decided to provide certain features that Bitcoin lacked, such as a high-volume payment system and low or manageable transaction fees.
They both have the same SHA256 hashing rate, Proof-of-Work consensus protocol, 21 million coin maximum supply, and P2PKH and P2SH addresses.
Segregated Witness Implements Is Refused by Bitcoin Cash
Separating the network from Segregated Witness (SegWit), a soft fork introduced in 2015, was one of the most notable hard forks. SegWit was a scalability-improving implementation on the Bitcoin network.
Block size and SegWit are the two main features that separate Bitcoin Cash from Bitcoin. Bitcoin Cash began with an 8MB block size (which was later increased to 32MB), while Bitcoin uses 2MB SegWit blocks or 1MB legacy blocks.
Miners on their network can process transactions quicker and cheaper than they could on Bitcoin due to the larger block size. Craig Wright, the CEO of nChain, Bitcoin investor Roger Ver, and Jihan Wu, the co-founder of Bitman, are said to have been among the lead developers pushing for the Bitcoin Cash hard fork. Furthermore, Roger Ver and other advocates of Bitcoin Cash say that Bitcoin Cash is the “real Bitcoin.”
Bitcoin Cash's minor updates fueled the hardfork that resulted in Bitcoin SV.
After its launch, Bitcoin Cash stakeholders have been discussing how to boost block size parameters for over a year. A few changes were made to the network, including smart contracts for atomic swaps and interoperable coins.
The Bitcoin Cash group seemed to be resistant to the changes, resulting in a hard fork from BCH on November 15th, 2018, led by nChain CEO Craig Wright. Bitcoin SV increased the block size to 128MB when restoring Bitcoin-like functionality that BCH had changed so much with their software update.
The hash wars broke out shortly after the split, with BSV saying they would sabotage BCH by stealing all of its hash power, despite the fact that all three versions would use the same mining hardware. The hash wars came to an end when BSV fully split, allowing BCH to enforce chain security. Bitcoin SV now has almost five times the hash power of Bitcoin Cash.
Bitcoin SV Has More Corporate Influence and Centralized Features
Self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto, Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist and entrepreneur, is the lead developer of BSV and was also associated with BCH before its break. He appears to be Bitcoin's sole developer and claims complete control of the cryptocurrency's register.
He also believed that while developers could fork his software and create alternative versions, they did not have the authority to change the database's protocol.
A transaction fee of 2% to 3% is paid by Bitcoin SV (Satoshi Vision). One of the reasons for the hard fork was that the developers wanted to lower transaction costs and provide fast and cheap large-scale transactions.
Furthermore, instead of sending a BTC wallet address, BSV's Paymail protocol allows users to send an email address, which is long and inconvenient to type every time.
Final thought
To conclude, both BCH and BSV have previously been involved in tense circumstances, with their developers accused of pump-and-dump schemes to manipulate market prices. In the conventional stock market, the bulk of what happens on cryptocurrency exchanges is outright illegal.
It's difficult to prove and prosecute criminal and market abuse activity in the crypto space since it's so unregulated and most transactions are anonymous.
Despite their popularity, neither version has attracted the same degree of support as the original Bitcoin. Miners on the network will participate interchangeably depending on which coin is having a successful day, for better rewards, since they can be mined with the same equipment.
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