The world of cryptocurrencies continues to evolve rapidly; the number of coins we know is also constantly growing. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is an example of a relatively new cryptocurrency. It was created in 2017. What is it and what are its main characteristics?
Bitcoin Cash is very similar to Bitcoin. The opening of Bitcoin Cash took place on August 1, 2017, on the day when he broke up with the already famous Bitcoin. The hard fork, after which Bitcoin Cash was formed, is a realized split in the blockchain. Thus, the bitcoin cash and ordinary bitcoins have the same transaction history until August 1, 2017, but now they are completely separate.
The fork, thanks to which a new cryptocurrency has appeared, is the result of a discussion in the crypto community on the topic of scalability. The problem of scaling is associated with the struggle of Bitcoin to process a large number of transactions in the cryptocurrency network.
The community failed to reach an agreement, and as a result, it was divided into two parts. Thus, a hard fork was implemented:
- Bitcoin Cash supporters believe that large transaction blocks will solve the problem of scaling. When more transactions are placed in one block, transactions will be processed faster. The bitcoin block size is 1 MB, bitcoin cash initially increased the block size to 8 MB. But since May 15, 2018, the block size has increased even more. The current block size is 32 MB. This is the biggest fundamental difference between bitcoin cash and ordinary bitcoins.
- Classic Bitcoin sees a solution in SegWit. SegWit is a method for separating signature information from a transaction block. As a result, the space of transaction blocks is distributed more efficiently - more transactions fit in one block. SegWit also clears the way for applications such as the Lightning Network and Atomic Swaps.
What can you do with Bitcoin Cash?
Since the bitcoin cash has the same history with the classic bitcoin, its application is almost the same.
Send and receive
An important feature of Bitcoin Cash is that you can send and receive cryptocurrency directly from person to person (peer-to-peer). There is no need for a reliable third party such as a bank or other intermediary institution. This is convenient, for example, when you want to transfer funds to another point in the world.
Payment method
As with bitcoins, you can use bitcoin cash as a payment method. Since this cryptocurrency is relatively new, it has not yet been implemented everywhere and the use of Bitcoin Cash as a payment method is not too common. Nevertheless, every day the number of online stores that accept this cryptocurrency is increasing. They often use a service that automatically converts cryptocurrencies to currencies such as euros or dollars.
There are also charities that accept bitcoin cash as a donation. For example, EatBCH is a project that fights hunger and prefers to accept only this cryptocurrency due to the speed of transactions and low fees.
How can you get Bitcoin Cash?
Once you have created a wallet in which you can manage your cryptocurrencies, there are several ways to get the bitcoin cash, which are almost identical to the methods for receiving other cryptocurrencies:
- You can buy Bitcoin Cash through a broker or exchange office;
- You can accept bitcoin cache as payment for your goods or services;
- You can receive (partially) your salary in this cryptocurrency;
- You can also start mining Bitcoin Cash.
Now you know what Bitcoin Cash is. It is a cryptocurrency, almost the same as classic bitcoins. It has a common transaction history with bitcoins, but it's not exactly the same. Bitcoin Cash has a different solution to the scaling problem, namely large transaction blocks.
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