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Bitcoin Cash

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Bitcoin Cash
Logo
Denominations
CodeBCH[a]
Precision10−8
Subunits
 1⁄100000000satoshi
Development
Implementation(s)BitcoinABC, Bitcoin Unlimited, Bitcoin XT[1]
Project fork ofbitcoin
Ledger
Genesis blockJanuary 3, 2009 (15 years ago) (2009-01-03)[2]
Block #1January 9, 2009 (15 years ago) (2009-01-09)[3]
First block after split (block #478559)August 1, 2017 (7 years ago) (2017-08-01)
Timestamping schemeProof-of-work (partial hash inversion)
Hash functionSHA-256
Issuance scheduledecentralized, block reward
Block reward12.5 BCH[b]
Block time10 minutes
Block explorerblockchair.com/bitcoin-cash/blocks
Supply limit21,000,000 BCH
Valuation
Exchange rateDecrease 994.62 USD (as of 10 March 2018)[4]
Website
Websitebitcoincash.org
  1. ^ Not to be confused with BCC, which is BitConnect Coin.
  2. ^ from July 2016 to approximately June 2020, halved approximately every four years

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a cryptocurrency.[5] It is a result of a prolonged disagreement on how to handle the bitcoin scalability problem. The change, called a hard fork, took effect on August 1, 2017.[6] As a result, the bitcoin ledger called the blockchain and the cryptocurrency split in two.[7][8] At the time of the fork anyone owning bitcoin was also in possession of the same number of Bitcoin Cash units.[9]

History

Idea forms

Up until July 2017, bitcoin users maintained a common set of rules for the cryptocurrency.[10] On July 20, 2017 at block height 476768 Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 91 was locked in (i.e. scheduled to activate at block height 477120).[11][12] It was designed to reject blocks created by miners not supporting Segregated Witness (SegWit).[11][12]

Some members of the bitcoin community felt that adopting BIP 91 without increasing the block-size limit favored people who wanted to treat bitcoin as a digital investment rather than as a transactional currency.[10][13]

On June 14, 2017 the mining company Bitmain posted on their corporate blog a post titled UAHF: A contingency plan against UASF (BIP148), in which the ASIC bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer published the hard fork specifications[14] and promised mining support if BIP 148 (a User Activated Soft Fork) succeeded.[15] Subsequently, some developers took interest in the project.[16] The Bitcoin Cash name was originally proposed by Chinese mining pool ViaBTC.[16][17]

A stated goal of the fork was to increase the number of transactions its ledger can process by increasing the block size limit to eight megabytes.[18][19] CoinDesk said that these motivations might have been behind the development and launch of Bitcoin Cash:[20]

  • Some users wanted an increase in bitcoin's block size limit parameter
  • SegWit was likely to activate and some users wanted to avoid the feature
  • The likelihood that SegWit2x would not launch in 2017

Peter Rizun, Chief Scientist for the Bitcoin Unlimited client, has described Bitcoin Cash as a backup plan should the SegWit2x proposal fail.[21] Once the SegWit2x hard fork was canceled many investors switch support to BCH.[22]

Development

The first implementation of the Bitcoin Cash protocol called Bitcoin ABC was revealed by Amaury "Deadal Nix" Séchet at the Future of Bitcoin conference in Arnhem, Netherlands.[23][16]

Launch

Upon launch, Bitcoin Cash inherited the transaction history of the bitcoin cryptocurrency on that date. All later transactions were separate.[23] Market cap appeared since 23:15 UTC, August 1, 2017.[13][24]

Move of hashpower and difficulty adjustment

On August 9, 2017 it was 30% more profitable to mine on the bitcoin chain.[25] As both chains use the same proof-of-work algorithm, miners can easily move their hashpower between the two. Due to the Emergency Difficulty Adjustment (EDA) algorithm, mining difficulty fluctuated rapidly.[26] On November 13, 2017, the EDA algorithm has been replaced with a new difficulty adjustment algorithm (DAA) that adjusts the mining difficulty, allowing the blocks to be created approximately every 600 seconds in presence of significant hashrate fluctuations.[26]

Market acceptance and naming

Cryptocurrency exchanges

Bitcoin Cash has been adopted by digital currency exchanges. Exchanges such as Coinbase,[27] CEX.IO,[28] Kraken,[29] ShapeShift[17] and many others use the Bitcoin Cash name and the BCH ticker symbol for the cryptocurrency. Bitstamp and Bitfinex temporarily used the name Bcash,[30][31] but after being criticized, they switched the name back to Bitcoin Cash.[32][33]

Bittrex,[34] Binance,[35] and Huobi exchange[36] use BCC as Bitcoin Cash's ticker symbol instead. BCC is more commonly used as the ticker symbol for Bitconnect.

Support

Notable supporters of Bitcoin Cash include investor Roger Ver,[10] entrepreneur Calvin Ayre,[37] developer Gavin Andresen,[38] entrepreneur Rick Falkvinge,[39] and the self-proclaimed inventor of bitcoin Craig Steven Wright.[40] Vitalik Buterin has indicated his views on the legitimacy of Bitcoin Cash in a series of tweets, saying it is "a legitimate contender for the bitcoin name."[41]

Applications

In December 2017 the Dream Market dark web marketplace allowed vendors to accept Bitcoin Cash for payments. It was one of the first dark web sites to do so.[42] BitPay, the largest bitcoin payment processor, integrated Bitcoin Cash into its Visa debit card.[43]

Tax implications

Americans wondering whether their acquisition of Bitcoin Cash is taxable as income, or not taxable as a division of property, have received no guidance from the Internal Revenue Service.[44]

See also

References

  1. ^ Hertig, Alyssa (August 1, 2017). "Bitcoin Cash: Who Supports the Fork And Who Doesn't". CoinDesk. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  2. ^ "Bitcoin Cash Block 0". blockchair.com. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  3. ^ "Bitcoin Cash Block 1". blockchair.com. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  4. ^ "Cryptocurrency Market Capitalizations". coinmarketcap.com. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  5. ^ Smith, Oli (21 January 2018). "Bitcoin price RIVAL: Cryptocurrency 'faster than bitcoin' will CHALLENGE market leaders". Express. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  6. ^ Smith, Jake (11 August 2017). "The Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork Will Show Us Which Coin Is Best". Forbes. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  7. ^ Larson, Selena (1 August 2017). "Bitcoin split in two, here's what that means". CNN. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
  8. ^ Thieme, Nick (4 August 2017). "Bitcoin Has Split Into Two Cryptocurrencies. What, Exactly, Does That Mean?". Slate. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  9. ^ Selena Larson (1 August 2017). "Bitcoin split in two, here's what that means". CNN Tech. Cable News Network. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  10. ^ a b c Popper, Nathaniel (July 25, 2017). "Some Bitcoin Backers Are Defecting to Create a Rival Currency". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
  11. ^ a b Aaron van Wirdum (July 20, 2017). "BIP 91 Has Locked In. Here's What That Means (and What It Does Not)". Bitcoin Magazine. Retrieved July 29, 2017. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  12. ^ a b Hertig, Alyssa (July 21, 2017). "BIP 91 Locks In: What This Means for Bitcoin and Why It's Not Scaled Yet". CoinDesk. Retrieved July 29, 2017.
  13. ^ a b Wong, Joon Ian (July 25, 2017). "There's a strange new twist in bitcoin's "civil war"—and a way to bet on the outcome". Quartz. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
  14. ^ Stone, Andrew. "Implement BUIP055 anti replay feature". github.com/BitcoinUnlimited/. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  15. ^ admin (June 14, 2017). "UAHF: A contingency plan against UASF (BIP148)". Bitmain Corporate Blog.
  16. ^ a b c van Wirdum, Aaron (27 July 2017). "The Future of "Bitcoin Cash:" An Interview with Bitcoin ABC lead developer Amaury Séchet". Bitcoin Magazine.
  17. ^ a b van Wirdum, Aaron (7 August 2017). "Bitcoin Cash or Bcash: What's in a Name?". BitcoinMagazine.
  18. ^ Nakamura, Yuri; Kharif, Olga (4 December 2017). "Battle for 'True' Bitcoin Is Just Getting Started". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  19. ^ Nguyen, Jimmy. "All Merchants Want For Christmas Should Be Bitcoin Cash". Huffington Post. Retrieved 24 December 2017.
  20. ^ Hertig, Alyssa. "Bitcoin Cash: Why It's Forking the Blockchain And What That Means". CoinDesk. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
  21. ^ Jon Southurst (30 March 2018). "Bitcoin Cash Gives Devs More Freedom, Say Bitcoin Unlimited's Andrew Stone and Peter Rizun". Bitsonline. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  22. ^ Craig Adeyanju (21 November 2017). "Bitcoin vs. Bitcoin Cash: Can Both Survive?". Cointelegraph. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  23. ^ a b "What is Bitcoin Cash?". Cointelegraph. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  24. ^ "Bitcoin Cash (BCH) price, charts, market cap, and other metrics - CoinMarketCap". coinmarketcap.com.
  25. ^ "Coin Dance - Bitcoin Cash Block Details". 8 August 2017. Archived from the original on 8 August 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  26. ^ a b Rizzo, Pete (13 November 2017). "Bitcoin Cash Hard Forks In Bid to Ease Mining Difficulties". CoinDesk. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  27. ^ "Coinbase - Buy/Sell Digital Currency". coinbase.com. Retrieved 2017-12-20.
  28. ^ "CEX.IO blog". cex.io. {{cite web}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
  29. ^ KrakenFX. "Bitcoin Cash and a Critical Alert for Bitcoin Margin Traders". kraken.com. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  30. ^ van Wirdum, Aaron (7 August 2017). "Bitcoin Cash or Bcash: What's in a Name?". Bitcoin Magazine.
  31. ^ Young, Joseph (6 December 2017). "Bitstamp Criticized For Listing Bitcoin Cash as Bcash, Despite Community Outrage". CoinTelegraph.
  32. ^ "Bitstamp". bitstamp.net. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  33. ^ "Bitfinex". bitfinex.com. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  34. ^ "Cryptocurrency Exchange - Bittrex.com". www.bittrex.com. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  35. ^ "Cryptocurrency Exchanges-Binance.com". binance.com. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  36. ^ "Statement about Huobi's attitude to BTC and Bitcoin Cash". huobi.com. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  37. ^ Suberg, William (18 October 2017). "Bitcoin Jesus, Calvin Ayre Media Say Bitcoin Cash Is The Only Blockchain". The Coin Telegraph.
  38. ^ Lee, Timothy B. (20 December 2017). "Bitcoin rival Bitcoin Cash soars as Coinbase adds support". ArsTechnica. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  39. ^ "What if new Google management decided that a search should cost $20, take eight hours, and be deliberately unreliable? (Bitcoin.)". Falkvinge on Liberty. 17 November 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  40. ^ Joshua Althauser (11 December 2017). "Self-proclaimed Bitcoin Creator Craig Wright: 2018 Will Be BCH's Year". Coin Telegraph. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  41. ^ JP Buntinx (14 November 2017). "Vitalik Buterin Deems Bitcoin Cash Worthy of Taking the Bitcoin Name". News BTC. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  42. ^ JP Buntinx (13 December 2017). "Dream Market Makes Surprising Return, Integrates Bitcoin Cash". The Merkle. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  43. ^ JP Buntinx (3 March 2018). "BitPay Visa Top-Ups Become a lot Cheaper With Bitcoin Cash". NewsBTC. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  44. ^ Saunders, Laura (25 August 2017). "No One Knows How Much to Pay in Bitcoin Cash Taxes". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
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