Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Debunking the FUD V2.0
Article Revised with more information and grammar fixes.
My goal is for the master coin to win, the greatest tech wise of all coins. Both coins have greatly different solutions addressing scaling improvements so we will take a look at both BCH and BTC.
Segregated Witness (Segwit) (BTC feature)
Segwit changes the algorithm how transactions get logged on the blockchain. See below picture and further reading.
Lightning Network (LN) (BTC Feature)
It’s a Computer Network for sending funds back and forth. LN uses smart contract and coined a “token” as it’s not on-chain BTC but a “smart contract asset” that is convertible to Bitcoin (BTC) or Litecoin (LTC).
Schnorr Signatures (BTC feature pending consensus acceptance)
Helps combine many transaction signatures to condense information to blocks. Not fully implemented yet, so actual performance may vary. Imagine the checks with one signature but now all the single signatures around rearranged into one piece of paper. Replace paper with blocks and you get the idea. This a possible feature for BCH as well.
What do they all have in common?
Segwit, Schnorr’s, and LN theoretically make transactions per second far faster. Note the word “theoretically” as the blocksize/blockweight is rather meager for BTC. Sure it could be really fast in no one is using BTC today, just you sending money. Segwit requires some rewriting of the code in the ecosystem which would make a Segwit removal rather cumbersome.
LN is a network that runs off-chain, like a checking account to temporary store data before cashing on at the bank (like the blockchain proves you have Bitcoin in hand). Moreover, LN can run fast but realizes on people to have link into a network that has many other nodes running. To keep fees low you’d have to cut out the middle man and do it yourself. You’d basically have to entice many people to leach off you and grow your power. So who would fit that bill? A Bank or big financial institutions.
(thanks Reina Nakamoto for finding this)
HODL Argument (BTC Maximalists)
If Bitcoin is pretty limited in supply and you HODL for 10 years will you get your lambo? Bitcoin and Crypto are solely backed by usage and acceptance; Merchant Adoption. Not the government and it alone is cryptographic numbers on a Blockchain. If everyone goes full anti-BTC and accept only suitable altcoins then BTC has zero value. Crypto Currency holds only it’s purchasing power and no direct utility.
HODL is a sound argument for real estate in prime areas and rare precious metals such as titanium, palladium, gold and so forth. Metals always hold utility as it always has melt value. Real estate will sour if area remains prime as the dollar bill is inflationary and declines in purchasing power.
Bigger-blocks
Ethereum has 1TB blocksize which increased the full node download to insane amount of data.
Blockstream’s plan for Bitcoin sounds like they build a nice Lambo but failted proving enough fuel and engine fluid for it to run at full capacity. A blocksize increase is like increasing fuel and engine fluid. Another-words, BTC’s mempool is too low in strength thus being “throttled” from running at max potential capacity.
Larger Blocksize means more potential network capacity (mempool) and an increase in transactions per second. BCH found an equilibrium were full node download is not unbearable in disk space but network is strong enough.
Zero Confirmations (0-conf) (BCH Feature)
BTC transactions are reversible before being mined such as if you sent the funds to wrong address or different coin address.
BCH on the other hand doesn’t allow transaction reversals before mining.
BTC sides argument is claiming that you can low transaction fee on one transaction and raise it on second transaction. BCH is working for a way to make 0-conf 100% double speed proof.
https://gist.github.com/awemany/619a5722d129dec25abf5de211d971bd
Blockstream:
They are a financial technology (FinTech) company based out of Canada. For profit corporation licenses Lightning Network and Liquid under BSD-MIT. They unlike BCH Community actually have investors bow down to. They gained sole development control of Bitcoin (BTC) from the 10 teams that used to development Bitcoin together.
He’s the weird part, Blockstream gobbled up many well-known developers yet are having issues with LN success rate and making theoretical performance boost happen in real-time. LN needs a near 100% success rate for all the money they are paying those developers. Blockstream is prioritizing side chains over on-chain development (aside from Schnorr). In a nutshell, if these side chains continue to fail to deliver great results Bitcoin will falter big time.
I understand Blockstream’s side in the sense that Ripple and Stellar are serious challengers for quest for a Virtual Banking System. Blockstream doesn’t want to get left out of that big evolutionary period.
Can we scale On-Chain?
September 2018 BCH Stress test proved that we can scale on chain, even faster then Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) (before switching to PoW/PoS Hybrid System).
(from Bitcoin.com)
FUD surrounding 4 Main Celebrities in BCH:
(Roger Ver, Jihan Wu, Craig Wright, Calvin Ayers)
In my personal experience if someone is solely attacking the character of a person instead of debunking their stances, they are grabbing for straws and it’s just a personal vendetta then really warranted.
Keep in mind United States of America has some anti-business/nanny laws such as anti-trust laws, Taxation Laws that are vague and could be taken out of context, Screwed up classifications: fireworks classified as explosives, or airsoft guns being considered firearms.
Moreover, wealthy entrepreneurs are far more likely to get in legal trouble than Average Joe due to vague USA Tax System. It’s not uncommon for people to get arrested or be fugitives for falling behind in taxes or failing to comply with Nexus Laws. A business could be in compliance one state but be breaking local state laws in the second operating state (different locale tax laws or some states require licensing of Crypto Business such as NV, NY, VT ect.)
So the FUD surrounding CSW and Ayers for taking pictures with pretty young Adult Women means nothing along with Jihan’s ASICBoost and Segwit blocking for “more mining reward FUD”, and who gave whom the middle finger.
Dr. Craig Steven Wright has many ongoing conflicts going on. Some maybe true others are just disgruntled developers lashing out at him. CSW will likely address these allegations on his own time.
Just because you don’t like how the 4 are influencing the community doesn’t make them cult leaders. I don’t believe anymore that I would be considered a fraud for associating the BCH Gang. The BCH guys are a warm welcoming family like group. I’m glad I was able to meet so many of them on Twitter and Discord.
Conclusion:
If Lightning Network improves I’d be willing to take another look at it. I’ve tested it for testnet BTC pico-transactions and it works fine in that regard. Diar co has already done the heavy testing for us. But I’d be willing to stress test LN personally once it’s reached more maturity.
Most of BTC claims to success don’t deliver on results. LN can “theoretically” beat BCH and Visa Credit Card Company is transactions per second, if route node is strong enough and dollar amount is low enough. Segwit changes the blockchain logging ecosystem. Let’s forget specifications and buzzword salad and talk about real world results. If BTC gang would like to refute me, best way would be via YouTube videos showing BTC real-time results such as transaction completion times and such.
If anyone on BTC replies to you with “bcash shill” or just contradicts without refuting, they are likely uninformed or a dis-grunted bagholder or a paid sockpuppet. Refute or don’t waste BCH guys time please.
BCH keeps Bitcoin to what Satoshi Nakamoto envisioned. Stronger Mempool, p2p electronic cash system.
Judge the 4 main celebrities of BCH by their actions within the BCH community, not by their personal affairs. How well they get merchants to accept BCH, programming updates, how they advance BCH. Remember it’s still a consensus and the will of the community runs it.
Results matter not buzzword salad.
Image Sources:
[1] http://archive.fo/m4x9P
[2] http://archive.fo/aZOTu
[3] Mr.Scatman on Twitter
[4] http://archive.fo/EWg9f
Bitcoin.com Segwit Article:
https://news.bitcoin.com/segregated-witness-removes-one-of-bitcoins-data-integrity-checks/
Bitcoin White Paper: