What Is Bitcoin Cash(BCH) ?

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a cryptocurrency that emerged as a result of a hard fork from the original Bitcoin blockchain in 2017. It was created to address the scalability issues encountered by Bitcoin, particularly in terms of transaction speed and fees.

History of Bitcoin Cash(BCH)

Who created Bitcoin Cash(BCH)?

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was created in August 2017 after a hard fork in the Bitcoin blockchain. It was created by a group of Bitcoin developers and miners who wanted to increase Bitcoin's block size limit to allow for more transactions to be processed.

Some of the key people involved in the creation of Bitcoin Cash include:

• Jihan Wu: Co-founder of Bitmain, a major mining hardware provider. He redirected some of Bitmain's mining power to support Bitcoin Cash.
• Roger Ver: An early Bitcoin investor and advocate who supported increasing Bitcoin's block size. He led the effort to create Bitcoin Cash.
• Calvin Ayre: Founder of CoinGeek. A major proponent of Bitcoin Cash.
• John McAfee: Founder of McAfee Associates. He provided early support to Bitcoin Cash.

History

• August 1, 2017: Bitcoin Cash was created after a hard fork in the Bitcoin blockchain to increase the block size. Significant mining support allowed it to survive and become a distinct blockchain.
• November 13, 2017: The price of BCH surged to an all-time high of nearly $3,800 as interest and adoption increased. However, prices subsequently fell over 2018 and 2019.
• May 2020: BCH went through a contentious hard fork to create Bitcoin Cash Node, retaining the original blockchain, and Bitcoin Cash ABC, with some changes to the consensus protocol.
• January 1, 2022: Another hard fork known as Bitcoin Cash X increased block sizes further to 32MB. More scalability and adoption is anticipated.

How Does Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Work?

Bitcoin Cash works very similarly to Bitcoin. It is a decentralized, peer-to-peer electronic cash system that allows online payments to be sent directly between two parties without going through a financial institution.

Mining and Consensus - BCH mining uses the SHA-256 hashing algorithm to secure the network and enable decentralized consensus. Miners compete to validate transactions and are rewarded with BCH coins for successfully adding blocks. A majority of mining power signals valid chain.

Block Size - BCH has significantly larger blocks, allowing a much higher volume of transactions per block. Average block sizes are 30-40MB vs 1-2MB for Bitcoin, enabling faster confirmations and lower fees.

Difficulty Adjustment - Bitcoin Cash adjusting mining difficulty every block to maintain a consistent block interval time of 10 minutes, helping stability.

Replay and Wipeout Protection - Technical protections implemented to prevent network attack vectors between BCH and BTC chains, ensuring independence.

Transaction Signatures - Keys and signatures used to authorize BCH transactions, providing cryptographic ownership as transactions propagate across network. Mishandling can lead to loss of funds.

Tokenomics

What is Bitcoin Cash(BCH) used for?

• Payments - BCH's main use is for making transactions and payments quickly, with much lower fees and faster confirmations than Bitcoin. Its payments use case has seen the most real-world adoption so far.
• Buying Items - Many merchants and online services already accept BCH payments for purchasing everyday consumer goods or paying bills. Retail adoption continues to grow.

How Many BCH Coins are There?

The maximum supply is 21,000,000

Token Distribution

Bitcoin Cash originally shared the same supply and distribution model as Bitcoin when it forked. Here are details on Bitcoin Cash's token distribution:

• Total Supply - BCH has a total fixed supply of 21 million BCH that will ever exist, the same as bitcoin.
• Distribution - BCH coins were distributed to anyone holding bitcoin before the August 1st, 2017 hard fork used to create BCH. This gave an equal amount of BCH based on bitcoin balances.
• Mining - New BCH is generated and distributed to miners as a reward for validating transactions and mining blocks. The block reward will half periodically.
• Trading - Additional BCH enters distribution through global trading on cryptocurrency exchanges. The market price fluctuates based on supply and demand.

Why is Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Valuable?

The main value proposition of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) comes from its ability to solve Bitcoin's scalability issues related to slow transaction speeds and congestion. BCH directly increases the block size limit compared to Bitcoin to allow more transactions in each block, significantly increasing overall network capacity and throughput.

Additionally, BCH implements large-scale on-chain scaling approaches to reduce dependence on off-chain solutions and ensure fast, efficient transaction processing and confirmation times. It also utilizes adjustable mining difficulty that self-adjusts based on the number of miners on the network, further optimizing block intervals and transaction speeds.

With faster payments, lower fees, increased capacity, on-chain scaling, and responsive difficulty adjustment, Bitcoin Cash provides greatly improved transaction scalability compared to original Bitcoin while still preserving decentralization. These factors drive BCH's value for payments and transactions.