Bitcoin Cash, big deal or not?
Cointelegraph reported that not even Bitmain, the original creator of Bitcoin Cash, is sure whether they will support the Bitcoin Cash hard fork or not.
If you were worried about the possible coming HF on August 1st, this should at least give you some reassurance that even if it happens it isn't much to be worried about, at least at first.
Even the main idea men behind it are not sure they want to go through with it.
Instead Bitmain said that creating Bitcoin Cash was only done as a precautionary measure in case BIP 148 activated. Well, BIP 148 has been avoided so Bitmain is saying that they are not sure if Bitcoin Cash is even a good idea.
What is Bitcoin Cash?
Bitcoin Cash is a hard fork that is being developed and launched by a few mining pools in response to the SegWit implementation on the main chain.
The goal of Bitcoin cash is to mine 8 MB blocks, which would be 8 times larger than that of Bitcoin, and to also maintain a network without using the SegWit fix.
SegWit is seen as a temporary band-aid by some and somewhat goes against some of the core principles of what makes Bitcoin, Bitcoin.
SegWit is likely to increase the block size to 2 MB, with the possibility of holding almost 4 MB of transactions in the most optimistic case.
Even then, Bitcoin cash blocks would still be 2-4 times larger than even Bitcoin with SegWit activated.
Is there reason to be concerned?
Yes and No.
It is becoming clear that many are not recognizing Bitcoin Cash as an official part of Bitcoin but instead are classifying it as a separate coin.
Specifically, Coinbase has come out and said that it does not intend to interact with the Bitcoin Cash blockchain.
That is a big deal as Coinbase is currently the largest wallet operator and one of the largest exchange operators of Bitcoin.
Slush Pool also had this to say:
"We want to let you know, that we currently have no plans to support the emerging Bitcoin hard fork called Bitcoin Cash (BCC) scheduled for August 1st. As for now, we do not see a real demand from miners and the costs of creating and maintaining a separate Bitcoin Cash infrastructure would be too high."
That is great news, but there is one section that really sticks out to me...
"As for now..."
Even if Bitcoin Cash doesn't gain a lot of traction at first, the 8 MB block size is going to be very alluring as Bitcoin attempts to scale.
Soon the 2 MB limit will become a problem again and we will be back to the drawing board.
At that point the creators of Bitcoin Cash are thinking people will slowly start to migrate over to Bitcoin Cash.
In Conclusion...
While it might not really be a big deal at first, there is always the chance that people start to flock to that chain in the future when scaling becomes an issue yet again.
There is also the possibility that Bitcoin Cash dies on the vine long before the 2 MB block limit becomes an issue again with Bitcoin, which would mean an entirely new proposal would have to come about at that time to solve the new scaling issues...
Either way, it is an interesting time to be alive.
Stay informed my friends!
Sources:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/slush-pool-will-not-support-bitcoin-cash-in-august-1-hard-fork
Image Sources:
http://www.investopedia.com/news/bitcoins-price-falls-after-group-says-it-will-activate-hard-fork/
https://www.betcoin.ag/bitcoin-hard-fork-approaching-what-are-benefits
Follow me: @jrcornel
Why not try all three? Bitcoin United is Bitcoin on the BitShares blockchain. Like BCH, it belongs to Aug 1 Bitcoin owners but it runs at light speed (3 second blocks) and is scalable to infinity when EOS comes out.
This is the only thing that keeps Bitcoin relevant in the long run - a multi-platform upgrade strategy.
The Third Bitcoin is the one to Watch
Free money is always a big deal in my world. So yes!!! Get bitcoin just to earn free BTC Cash!!!!
We will just have to wait and see after August 1st it seems (I think BTC is going to dip from those buying into to BTC just trying to cash in on BTC Cash) at least temporarily.
TL;DR = HODL BTC FOR MAXIMUM GAINS.
It's really hard to predict on what is going to happen , if it's going to be the same story as what happened to ETH than people holding BTC are in for a treat.
Well, if you have 1 BTC now ($2700) and after the fork you have 1 BTC and 1 BCC but 1 BTC = ($2300) and 1 BCC = ($400), you'll really have the same purchasing power.
That is not to dissuade you; this is exactly what I am doing :P Just bear in mind, the market will likely adjust such that the $$ in BTC is just split. What we need is more of that tasty mainstream revenue up in here.
'Free money' depends on whether BTC and BCC together will be worth more than BTC now under equal circumstances.
However, because BCC at least seems a try to scale Bitcoin, it at least gives the market an idea of how the chosen solution works in practice. That will provide interesting feedback for other Bitcoin camps.
Very interesting, thank you. I hope BTC will win
it has won already. no doubt.
lol yeah early adopter are all winner here but the difficulty is to stay a winner ;)
do what your name implies and it´ll work out :-)
If anything, we should be happy to have a competing bitcoin, with a different solution to the scaling problem that has been crippling bitcoin for years...
Good point. It seems a HF is necessary at some point, whether be it now or in the future.
Agreed but there would be no scaling problem had Blockstream not intentionally prevented a block size increase. Increasing the block size is the intended way to scale bitcoin. There was time bitcoin transactions were almost free and instant. Now I pay heavy fee's and wait minutes to hours for coin to move. All this is a result of Blockstream working to cripple bitcoin so they can profit by offering a private centralized solution.
We are witnessing a 'voting event'. Indeed exciting that new ways will be tested for the scaling issue. It may get messy, but this is Bitcoin (=free market).
I guess it's best to hold the private key and keep Bitcoin safe... Let's the market decide
The sell off will happen so fast that only a lucky few will get even close to what the bcc futures is trading at. It wont be worth the risk sending your real bitcoin to an exchange to cash out bcc for peanuts! Nothing is free.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin Cash(somewhere in China on August 1st 2017)
This reminds me of the whale they blew up in Oregon. The chunks rained back down injuring some as they ran for survival. A parked car over a quarter mile away had it's roof flattened.
The more you know! I bet somewhere in the future, aliens are watching this thinking we're such primitives
Just shows you, when you try to stick a fork in the big whale you get shit spewed all over yourself.
1st of August then :-D
Haha that's pretty funny.
There´s just one powerful thing outhere. And no fork is going to replace it.
Again, nice one. I actually think people who get in BTC now by selling altcoins are in for a nasty loss. I explained it in my blog yesterday as well. Check it out if interested:
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@attalis/3-reasons-why-buying-bitcoins-now-from-your-alt-coins-is-a-losing-trade
In any case thanks for the interesting read!
Yes, I think so as well. I think the market will likely move too fast for them to realize any gain from that strategy. By the time they get out of Bitcoin and back into the coins they sold, they will be paying higher prices... that is my guess at least.
Exactly my thoughts too, no doubt we will see the reactions next month.
Just read yours and I basically agree. Would add that the "dividend" could be priced a lot closer to zero than most expect.
And now if Alts start to rally into the 31st, they all get more expensive to buy back even before hand. 😵
yeah good point. thanks for the comment!
Therebwill probably be a happy few that get the timing exactly right but to me it seems it will not be very easy to get rid of BCC 'earned' that easy. After all, for every seller there's a buyer. Where will deep liquid BCC markets arise spontaneously?
i buying bitcoin and tether(that way i can trade immediately when bitcoin settle down again)
I have a feeling a lot of people are going to try and cash in on BCC and its really going to hurt Bitcoin for a couple of weeks... that is until everyone dump BCC and tries to get back into BTC!
Prepare for a wild roller-coaster ride everyone!
People trying to dump BCC should have no effect on BTC - they are separate blockchains as a hard fork. Unless you are saying people will sell all their BTC to speculate in BCC which seems unlikely. The fact is BTC can go up and BCC can go up. Bitcoin is getting a bit more distributed and traded by a large number of people so I doubt "whales" can manipulate it at will. Would be interesting see what whales exist in bitcoin. Even if someone controls one million bitcoin that is less than 1/16 th of the total supply now.
It's going to be an interesting few weeks/ months! If everyone is holding btc just for free BCC and intend to sell, then BCC will drop like a stone as soon as it's live! That will give miners no incentive to mine it, exchanges no incentive to hold it and it will die out!!
That could happen. Hopefully the speculators in BCC futures provide some buying in BCC.