By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 23rd, 2024
As both camps engage in the war for gaining dominance over the hash power, here a look into how things have turned so far.
Last week on November 15th, the long going war between two camps ultimately resulted in the Bitcoin Cash hard fork. The BCH blockchain split into two different versions: Bitcoin Cash ABC and Bitcoin Cash SV. Both the camps have engaged in an intense battle to win the hash war ever since the fork went through. Before taking a look at the current scenario of hash war, let’s check differences between the two versions.
Bitcoin Cash ABC v/s Bitcoin Cash SV
- Bitcoin Cash ABC (Adjustable Blocksize Cap): The supporters of BCHABC want to preserve the functions of the original Bitcoin Cash network as opposed to any radical changes. However, the new client certainly overcomes the technical limitations of the BCH network. As the name implies, Bitcoin AC allows the node operator can adjust their block size. The supporters of Bitcoin ABC propose a simple two-pronged approach to scaling that basically emphasizes on improving the software.1. Remove immediate implementation bottlenecks to increasing the block size limit.
2. Lay the technical groundwork for massive future on-chain scaling.The Bitcoin ABC supporters say that the BCH’s existing structure is “sound,” and “does not need any radical change”. The BCHABC, however, will have an additional code for interoperability between cryptocurrencies.
The Bitcoin ABC community is led by Roger Ver and Bitmain co-founder Jihan Wu. The mining pools supporting Bitcoin ABC are BTC.com, Antpool, and Bitcoin.com. The block size for Bitcoin ABC network is 32MB.
- Bitcoin Cash Satoshi Version: The supporters of Bitcoin SV propose some radical changes to the network while attempting to restore “the original Satoshi protocol”. As a result, Bitcoin SV proposes of changing the existing BCH network structure. Firstly, the major change is increasing the block size from 32MB to a larger 128MB.
Furthermore, the protocol overhaul also focuses on easing up the transition to smart contracts. Supporters of Bitcoin SV include the controversial and self-acclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto, Craig Wright. Joining his camp are Jimmy Nyugen and Calvin Ayre. The mining pools supporting the Bitcoin SV version include Coingeek and Bitcoin.org.
The Hash War Continues
Just after the hard fork, both the camps engaged to gain dominance over the network by winning the hash power. The latest graph from CoinDance shows that both Bitcoin ABC leads Bitcoin SV in the hash rate war. Moreover, the data says that additional stats show that Bitcoin ABC has 61% hash rate while Bitcoin SV has 39%. Actually, soon as the hard fork was live, Bitcoin ABC took the early lead in block mining. Popular crypto analyst and investors Joseph Young soon tweeted regarding the same
https://twitter.com/iamjosephyoung/status/1063139589735370752
Bitcoin SV supporters Craig Wright made some aggressive statements while even vowing to destroy the ABC network.
https://twitter.com/ProfFaustus/status/1062961364816289793
However, Bitcoin ABC supporter and Bitmain co-founder Jihan Wu has responded to Wright’s threat. Wu has made it absolutely clear that he won’t be giving up on the ongoing hash war. On the Reddit forum, Wu said:
“I have no intention to start a has war with [Craig Wright], because if I do – by relocating hash power from BTC mining to BCH mining – BTC price will dump below yearly support; it may even breech $5,000. But since [Craig Wright] is relentless, I am all in to fight till death!”
In a bid to win the hash war, both the camps have engaged in mining empty blocks. Some experts have suggested that this could lead to detrimental effects even on the winning chain in the long-term.
Moreover, over the last week, there’s a huge transfer of mining power from BTC to BCH. This could possibly be one of the reasons for the Bitcoin’s major price fall last week.
Exchanges Waiting for the Dust to Settle
A number of popular exchanges like Poloniex, Bitstamp, and Coinbase are not taking wither sides and rather waiting for the dust to settle. However, for a few days, nearly 10 other exchanges said that they would use the “BCH” ticker for the BCH ABC version.
Binance broke the early silence itself on November 16th. The crypto trading platform said that it would allow both – Bitcoin ABC and Bitcoin SV while distributing its customers in 1:1 ratio.
It would be interesting to see as to how things change going further and will ultimately don the crown.