{"id":37198,"date":"2017-07-26T14:34:39","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T11:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=37198"},"modified":"2025-08-29T13:46:29","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T10:46:29","slug":"what-is-bitcoin-cash-bch-and-how-did-it-emerge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/what-is-bitcoin-cash-bch-and-how-did-it-emerge\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and how did it emerge?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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1<\/span><\/p>\n

Another hard fork?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Attention: This article was published in 2017.<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
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<\/div>\n
The danger of a hard fork\u2014that is, the network splitting into several separate blockchains\u2014had seemed to recede. In recent days, however, the issue has returned to the centre of the Bitcoin community\u2019s agenda. What happened, and why is this ominous-sounding hard fork threatening Bitcoin again?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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2<\/span><\/p>\n

Why did a hard fork seem unlikely?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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To understand that, recall how the scaling debate unfolded in recent months. The main improvement championed by much of the community was Segregated Witness<\/a> (SegWit). But activating it required support from at least 95% of miners. Guided by their economic interests, not all agreed. The standoff among several camps led to deadlock, and SegWit2x appeared to offer a way out. It had two parts: first, activating SegWit; second, increasing the block size to 2MB.<\/p>\n

That, too, ran into problems: many in the community objected that the plan had been agreed behind closed doors by a group of miners and companies. The response was UASF<\/a>\u2014a user-activated soft fork. It also aimed to activate SegWit, but via node operators, depriving miners of an economic advantage.<\/p>\n

UASF is slated for 1 August 2017, but it also carried the risk of a hard fork. That risk was averted with BIP 91, which is compatible with both SegWit2x and UASF. It activated on 22 July, clearing the way for SegWit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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3<\/span><\/p>\n

So why is a hard fork back on the agenda?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Amid all this, a group of industry participants\u2014chiefly Chinese miners who favour bigger blocks\u2014announced plans to launch a separate client called BitcoinABC. It was initially presented as a backstop in case the second phase of SegWit2x was not implemented. A separate coin, Bitcoin Cash (BCC), was assigned to the client.<\/p>\n

To the surprise of many, the BitcoinABC developers said they would launch the protocol on 1 August, the same day UASF is due to activate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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4<\/span><\/p>\n

What does launching BitcoinABC (Bitcoin Cash) mean?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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First, it is a permanent fork of the current Bitcoin network. Although it preserves the prior ledger history, it is incompatible with the solutions described in SegWit2x and UASF. Even so, many in the industry put the likelihood of it happening at close to 99%.<\/p>\n

The project\u2019s FAQ states:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2014 Is Bitcoin Cash different from Bitcoin?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Yes. Bitcoin Cash is a continuation of the Bitcoin project as a peer-to-peer digital currency. It is a fork of the Bitcoin blockchain with updated consensus rules that allow its further growth and scaling.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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5<\/span><\/p>\n

I use Bitcoin. How does this affect me personally?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Bitcoin Cash fork means that if a user holds a given amount of bitcoin at 12:20 UTC on 1 August 2017, when the new client is expected to activate, he or she will thereafter hold the same number of BCC coins.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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6<\/span><\/p>\n

Free money, just like that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Yes\u2014but on one condition: the user must personally control the wallet\u2019s private keys. If funds are held with a third-party provider (for example, on an exchange or in an online wallet), there is a high chance the user will not be able to claim the BCC due. For instance, the popular wallet Coinbase has already said it will not support Bitcoin Cash because it is incompatible with the current version of Bitcoin.<\/p>\n

A number of exchanges and wallets say they will distribute BCC to users, but there is no certainty they will be technically ready to do so.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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7<\/span><\/p>\n

What other risks could accompany the launch of Bitcoin Cash?<\/strong><\/p>\n

All hard forks carry the risks of replay attacks and wipeout attacks. According to the Bitcoin Cash developers, replay protection is already built into the new software. As for the risk of a wipeout attack, it may be insignificant because this is an entirely new blockchain<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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8<\/span><\/p>\n

What are Bitcoin Cash\u2019s main properties?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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First, Bitcoin Cash offers a much larger block size\u20148MB versus 1MB in today\u2019s Bitcoin. In Bitcoin Cash, the block size is intended to be configurable as needs dictate.<\/p>\n

Second, as noted, the new software has built-in protection mechanisms (though some Bitcoin developers dispute this), as well as a somewhat different transaction-signature structure.<\/p>\n

Third, Bitcoin Cash promises a faster difficulty adjustment than Bitcoin\u2019s current 2016-block retarget.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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9<\/span><\/p>\n

What does this mean for the Bitcoin everyone knows?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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This is the hardest question, and answering it at this stage is far from simple. Some in the community see the Bitcoin Cash hard fork as nothing more than the creation of a new altcoin with its own blockchain and ticker\u2014BCC, not BTC.<\/p>\n

Yet questions remain about which pools will mine BCC and which chain will have the higher hashrate. Would it be right to call BCC Bitcoin if that chain\u2019s hashrate were to surpass that of the current version? What will be the respective sizes of the two chains and the price ratio between the two coins? Finally, how might the launch of Bitcoin Cash affect the second phase of SegWit2x\u2014ie increasing the block size to 2MB\u2014and which chain will projects built on top of Bitcoin (CounterParty, Omni, etc.) choose?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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10<\/span><\/p>\n

How best to prepare for the hard fork?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It makes sense to ask your providers how they are preparing for a likely hard fork; otherwise, the best course is to withdraw funds to a wallet whose private keys you control. In that case, once the hard fork occurs and new coins appear, you will be able to take the necessary steps and claim coins on both chains.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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11<\/span><\/p>\n

Which exchanges and wallets support Bitcoin Cash?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are not many yet; information is available on the official website<\/a> of the project. As of 26 July, exchanges mentioned include ViaBTC, OKex (OkCoin), BitHumb and Huobi. Wallets include BitcoinABC, Ledger and Electrum Cash (the team behind the popular Electrum wallet has already said it has nothing to do with the latter).<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 Another hard fork? Attention: This article was published in 2017. The danger of a hard fork\u2014that is, splitting the network into multiple blockchains\u2014had seemed minimal. In recent days, however, the issue has returned to the centre of the Bitcoin community\u2019s agenda. What happened, and why is this ominous-sounding hard fork threatening Bitcoin again? 2 [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"1","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"human_written","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2113],"tags":[2117,18,754,268],"class_list":["post-37198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptorium","tag-101-altcoins","tag-bitcoin","tag-bitcoin-cash","tag-hardfork"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"53","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37198"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37200,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37198\/revisions\/37200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}