Bitcoin Cash is a cryptocurrency that is derived from a community-based update of the Bitcoin blockchain or blockchain protocol. In short words, is a hard fork of the Bitcoin blockchain. The main goal of the cryptocurrency was to overcome Bitcoin thanks to its scalability and its great potential as a global payment system.
Bitcoin Cash was born as an alternative to original Bitcoin due to various changes in the blockchain and structure of this cryptocurrency. Its adepts declare that Bitcoin Cash respects the original vision presented in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto.
History of Bitcoin Cash
Because of the large increase in users using Bitcoin, long queues were generated to carry out transactions with this cryptocurrency. This was mainly due to the fact that each of the blocks of the Bitcoin chain has 1MB of storage and this implies that a maximum of 7/8 transactions are performed per second.
This limitation began to generate conflicts within the Bitcoiner community where you could see two groups with different ideals:
- Those who wanted to increase the block space limit to process about 14 transactions per second.
- Those who wanted to maintain the current space, because it would increase the costs for miners.
Finally, part of the community, in favour of expanding the capacity decided to create a new digital currency called Bitcoin Cash. The name refers to the fact that BCH tries to perform the original functions raised by Satoshi Nakamoto to create digital money which acts as a substitute for cash.
In August 2017, Bitcoin owners saw their balance doubled due to the creation of this new cryptocurrency, which currently has a maximum capacity limit of 32MB per block vastly superior to Bitcoin.
How does BCH work?
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) uses the same core technology as the Bitcoin blockchain, so its operation is quite similar.
The blockchain of this currency also has a copy of the complete history of transactions made. Nodes are the ones that approve whether a new transaction is legitimate or not. When BCH is sent, the nodes check if the issuer has enough Bitcoin Cash to authorize the transaction.
When the nodes approve the legitimacy of the transaction, this will be added to a block by a miner. Since blocks can never be removed from the chain, this is a very important process. Each miner is a node, but each node is not necessarily a miner.
As in the case of Bitcoin, to make sure that only honest entities are able to create a block full of transactions, the creation of a block costs a lot of power.
To fake any data in the chain, you’ll need more than 50 percent of the total power of your computer. Something truly unattainable because it requires a lot of computational power, the cost of which would not be justified for the profit that can be obtained by falsifying these data.
BCH mining
Whereas the cryptocurrency is a Hard Fork without further modification, its extraction is practically equal to that of the basic cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. Both extraction protocols use the same consensus, Proof of Work (Pow). Thanks to this, mining teams to mine Bitcoin can be used for Bitcoin Cash with some modifications.
At first, both mines were equally complex and unprofitable, however, as Bitcoin Cash turns out to be less attractive reduced the difficulty of mining by 20 when less than 6 blocks are found in 12 hours. This way it will take less time and energy and increase profitability.
BCH Wallets
As with all cryptocurrencies, to store them you will need a wallet, but not any wallet, but one enabled for the cryptocurrency you want to store. There are different types of wallets, each with different features that fit better or worse to the user’s needs.
- Of all the existing options, the most secure, easy-to-use and Bitcoin Cash-compatible wallets are Ledger Nano X Wallet. It is a secure and compatible hardware wallet with more than a thousand tokens.
- Another option is Trezor, a hardware wallet with support for more than 1800 cryptocurrencies, reliable and good reputation. Its price is about 50 or 60 USD.
- You can also opt for wallet adaptable to your computer and mobile as exodus among other. Its interface is simple and is among the best to start in the world of cryptocurrencies.
Price of BCH
Although currently the price of Bitcoin Cash fluctuates between 279 USD and 292 USD it came to cost up to 75 USD in December 2018. Its maximum was 4.355 USD in December 2017. Currently occupies the number 6 in the graph of market capitalization with a total capitalization of $5,264,952,321 USD.
Differences: Bitcoin Cash vs. Bitcoin
Even if one cryptocurrency comes from the other, which makes them really similar, it doesn’t mean they’re exactly the same. Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash have remarkable differences that are worth clarifying:
- As a main difference we find the increase in size of the Bitcoin Cash block compared to Bitcoin. Thanks to this, Bitcoin Cash transaction rates are much lower than in Bitcoin.
- While the original cryptocurrency has a block size of 1MB, Bitcoin Cash has a block size of 32MB.
- While BCH produces each block at 10-minute intervals and is certainly faster than Bitcoin, the use of its network is also considerably lower.
Where to Buy Bitcoin Cash (BCH)?
If you want to know how to buy Bitcoin Cash or where to do it, we recommend that you buy Bitcoin Cash at Bitnovo. It’s really a quick and safe way to do it.
Our goal as a company is to make sure that a person just entered the cryptocurrency world can buy any cryptocurrency quickly and easily, without suffering the inconveniences that have most cryptocurrency exchanges.
