What Is Bitcoin SV (BSV)?

Bitcoin SV (BSV) or “Bitcoin Satoshi Vision” is a controversial offshoot of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) with the stated goal of following what its creators claim is Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision for Bitcoin. The network emerged from a 2018 hard fork of BCH, implementing on-chain scaling and increased block sizes to boost transaction throughput and attract enterprise users.

Bitcoin SV has been one of the most controversial blockchains in the crypto world since it was created, partially due to its association with Craig Wright. Wright has repeatedly claimed that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator (or creators) of Bitcoin, but many experts and founders in the field heavily dispute this claim. The network has likely suffered significantly from this controversy as it struggles with user adoption, developer activity, and even exchange listings.

In this guide, we will explore everything you need to know about Bitcoin SV, from its history and current standing in the market to its technical details and future potential.

What Is Bitcoin SV?

Bitcoin SV is a unique blockchain in the crypto industry, not necessarily for its technology or design goals, but for its constant controversies and leadership disputes. As we mentioned above, its namesake is meant to detail its main goal: to make Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision of Bitcoin a reality. This refers to Craig Wright, who helped drive the initial hard fork that created BSV and claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto himself.

BSV supporters, including Craig Wright, argue that Satoshi wanted Bitcoin to maximize simplicity, stability, and high usage. They tried to realize this goal by adding on-chain scaling and vastly increasing the size of transaction blocks from BCH’s 32 MB to 128 MB, allowing the network to quickly process many more transactions. This was rather extreme at the time, especially because it was splitting off from Bitcoin Cash, which already had a block size roughly 32 times larger than Bitcoin’s.

Detractors of Bitcoin SV argue that BSV totally ignored the entire point of Bitcoin, outlined by Satoshi themselves, which was decentralization. Increasing block size can be a powerful and easy fix to allow a network to scale quickly. However, it can also make it much more difficult for regular people without expensive hardware to help validate and secure the network.

Within a few years, the Bitcoin SV team entirely removed the fixed block size limit, allowing blocks to reach 2 GB or more. The only limits on block size are miner hardware constraints and network usage. This has led to significant centralization of BSV mining because only miners with expensive hardware and a large budget can afford to process and mine such large blocks.

Craig Wright and Bitcoin SV’s Controversies

Craig Wright has remained at the center of all things Bitcoin SV as he had a large part in its creation and development from the beginning. He first started to claim that he was Satoshi Nakamoto in early 2016, years before Bitcoin SV was created.  Since then, he has offered a variety of documents and other kinds of evidence to try to prove this claim.

Especially in the early days, many crypto investors and a handful of popular outlets, including WIRED, believed Wright. However, top industry figures and developers have argued that the claim was entirely made up and even accused Wright of forging documents in order to support his argument. The controversy has found its way into many different courtrooms, including a U.K. High Court in 2024, where a judge declared that Wright is not Satoshi and that he did not create Bitcoin.

One interesting example in the case focused on his alleged version of the original 2008 Bitcoin whitepaper. The Guardian reported that experts on both sides of the case testified that the whitepaper was written with the document software LaTeX. Wright’s opposing counsel said that the version that Wright submitted to try to prove that he wrote it was created with OpenOffice software instead.

Notably, a judge in a previous defamation case, brought by Wright against someone who called him “a fraud,” said that Wright had “advanced a deliberately false case and put forward deliberately false evidence until days before trial.” While Wright eventually won the case, he was only awarded £1 in damages.

Wright’s status as a controversial figure in the crypto space seems to have at least partially hampered Bitcoin SV over the years. The most devastating blows have been major exchange delistings. The token has been removed from Binance, Kraken, Coinbase, and a handful of other top trading platforms. Some cited the 51% attacks that the network fell victim to, while others were likely more focused on Wright’s legal threats, reputation, and litigiousness.

How Does Bitcoin SV Work?

Similar to Bitcoin, BSV is a relatively simple blockchain. If you understand how Bitcoin works, even at a basic level, you probably already know how BSV functions. It is a Proof-of-Work blockchain, like Bitcoin, which allows users to utilize mining hardware to guess at difficult mathematical puzzles to earn the right to mine a block and earn the corresponding rewards.

Its block validation and fixed supply schedule, which decreases the BSV rewards per mined block by 50% roughly every four years, is essentially the same as Bitcoin’s. However, while many of the fundamentals of Bitcoin can be seen in BSV, the end result is much different.

Most of the differences between the two blockchains come down to scaling. Its creators criticized Bitcoin’s low transaction throughput, arguing that it makes it a poor payment system with high fees and slow transactions. One of the main ways they tried to solve this is by dramatically increasing the size of blocks. Initially, BSV’s block size was set at 128 MB, which was already massive when compared to Bitcoin’s 1 MB blocks.

The BSV team eventually completely removed the protocol’s block size, leading to massive blocks of up to 2 GB or more when the network is at its busiest. If you have ever downloaded a large game or waited through a lengthy system update, you might already understand how much of a problem this can be for regular computers. As a result, this has led to centralization in the network’s validators, as it is too expensive and hardware-intensive for everyday users to secure the network.

How Was Bitcoin SV Created? Hard Fork Explained

Bitcoin SV was created in the same way that many top blockchains came about in the early years of the crypto industry: through a hard fork. Most new networks that pop up today are built from the ground up, but projects like Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Stellar were created by modifying existing blockchains.

When modifications make the new version incompatible with the old version, they are split into two separate blockchains. This process is called a hard fork, and they mostly focus on a small handful of major changes or tweaks instead of radical restructuring.

In fact, Ethereum is a product of a hard fork because its developers and community decided to reverse the theft of about $60 million of ETH from its crowdfunded decentralized autonomous Organization (DAO). The original version, called Ethereum Classic (ETC), still exists today, though it is far less popular.

The story of Bitcoin SV’s origins debatably begins with the hard fork that created Bitcoin Cash (BCH) in August 2017. Proponents wanted significantly larger block sizes so the new chain had an increased limit to 32 MB. This was the main difference between the networks, though other smaller changes were made, such as rejecting the recent Segregated Witness upgrade and adjustments to the mining algorithm.

Within a year, the Bitcoin Cash community split into two main camps, divided over increasing the block size further. Supporters of raised caps included Craig Wright, who helped lead the faction to launch yet another hard fork, creating Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision. Like the BCH hard fork, the most central change was an increased block size, but it also tweaked other elements such as smart contract compatibility.

Bitcoin SV’s Benefits and Limitations

While Bitcoin SV is focused on making its blockchain more scalable and usable for both regular users and institutions, it has its fair share of benefits and limitations. Here is a quick breakdown of the main pros and cons you should know about.

Bitcoin SV’s Benefits

• Fast transactions: Transactions on the network are typically processed quickly thanks to its large block size.
• Low fees: The same factors that make transactions speedy on BSV make them cheap, especially when the network isn’t congested.
• Focus on stability: The team’s emphasis on minimal future network upgrades could provide a sense of certainty.
• High data throughput: Bitcoin SV’s massive block sizes enable certain data-intensive use cases that other networks may not be able to handle.
• Proof-of-Work security: BSV uses essentially the same security system as Bitcoin.

Bitcoin SV’s Limitations

• Centralization: MiningPoolStats’ report reveals that only 6 mining pools control over 91% of the network.
• Limited adoption: BSV has struggled to attract retail users and institutions over the years.
• Few exchange listings: BSV has been delisted by most of the largest crypto exchanges, though it is available on multiple smaller trading platforms.
• Controversies: BSV and Wright’s controversies in the crypto community have likely hurt its adoption.

What Is the Future of Bitcoin SV?

Bitcoin SV’s extensive history, from its heated hard fork in 2018 to its various controversies in the years since, has made it a fascinating example of how the crypto market evolves. While it ended up suffering from centralization, its creation showed how a community of people and developers can innovate on existing technology without asking a centralized third party first.

BSV is certainly not the largest or most popular blockchain right now, but it still has many proponents who support the trade-offs it made for scalability. The project’s future still hinges on growing adoption. It will have to translate this scalability into real-world use cases and attract enough users to make it all worth it. However, its critics argue that its solution of uncapped block sizes is simply outdated and that it is already being replaced by more advanced solutions like Layer 2 blockchains and Zero-Knowledge (ZK) rollups.

FAQs

What is Bitcoin SV used for?

Bitcoin SV or BSV is a highly scalable hard fork of Bitcoin Cash, designed for enterprise use cases and payments. However, it has struggled to gain much adoption.

Is Bitcoin SV the same as Bitcoin?

No. Bitcoin SV is a hard fork of Bitcoin Cash, which is an offshoot of Bitcoin. Much of the underlying features and infrastructure are the same, but there are multiple massive differences between BSV and BTC, including larger block sizes and on-chain scaling.

Does Bitcoin SV have a future?

Some investors believe that BSV still has a promising future, but its price has mostly been on a downtrend since 2021, with its market cap falling over 85% since its all-time high.

What is a hard fork in crypto?

A hard fork is like a massive software update for a blockchain that is so different from the previous version that it splits off into its own, incompatible blockchain. Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV are both examples of hard forks.

Julia Sakovich

Senior Editor, 1251 posts

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I’m a content writer and editor with extensive experience creating high-quality content across a range of industries. Currently, I serve as the Editor-in-Chief at Coinspeaker, where I lead content strategy, oversee editorial workflows, and ensure that every piece meets the highest standards. In this role, I collaborate closely with writers, researchers, and industry experts to deliver content that not only informs and educates but also sparks meaningful discussion around innovation.

Much of my work focuses on blockchain, cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence, and software development, where I bring together editorial expertise, subject knowledge, and leadership experience to shape meaningful conversations about technology and its real-world impact. I’m particularly passionate about exploring how emerging technologies intersect with business, society, and everyday life. Whether I’m writing about decentralized finance, AI applications, or the latest in software development, my goal is always to make complex subjects accessible, relevant, and valuable to readers.

My academic background has played an important role in shaping my approach to content. I studied Intercultural Communications, PR, and Translation at Minsk State Linguistic University, and later pursued a Master’s degree in Economics and Management at the Belarusian State Economic University. The combination of linguistic, communication, and business training has given me the ability to translate complex technical and economic concepts into clear, engaging narratives for diverse audiences.

Over the years, my articles have been featured on a variety of platforms. In addition to contributing to company blogs—primarily for software development agencies—my work has appeared in well-regarded outlets such as SwissCognitive, HackerNoon, Tech Company News, and SmallBizClub, among others. 

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