Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash
Jul 28, 2017 Posted / 2513 Views
Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash:
Cryptocurrency Bitcoin had been experiencing a lot of hype for the past few months. There had been an announcement about a UASF (User Activated Soft Fork) combining algorithms of BIP 148 and Segregated Witness (SegWit2x). Now there are disagreements occurring between the Bitcoin miners about how the Bitcoin should change to scale better. Currently there is a group of miners and investors supporting the Bitcoin hard fork (UAHF) which allows more improved facilities on behalf of scalability of Bitcoin and allows opportunities for future development of the blockchain.
* Bitcoin UASF (User Activated Soft Fork):
A hard fork is a scenario every investor and Blockchain miner try to avoid. And the Bitcoin miners and investors had been supporting a consensus known as Segregated Witness which will reduce the scalability issues of the Bitcoin and at the same time, will be compatible with the current block chain. This was the likely solution that would have happened on August 1. A combination of BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Protocol) 148 and SegWit2x is going to be launched on August 1. This was a relaible option since it involves only a soft fork.
* Bitcoin Cash (Hard Fork):
Currently, the scenario is changed and a group of miners, investors and developers have come forward with the support for a Bitcoin hard fork which is named as Bitcoin Cash (BCC). According to the BCC website, the hard fork will provide a block size of 8 MB instead of the lower block size of 1 MB. Again it is stated that the hard fork has the features that can allow the Bitcoin to grow and develop in future. After the failure of the DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organisation) exchange, the Ethereum blockchain was split into two Ethereum and Ethereum Classic blockchains. Changes to the Bitcoin requires the miners have a certain consensus. If the consensus is not reached, then the code is forked. That's how the coin split occurred to the Ethereum currency. This can happen with the Bitcoin also after August 1.
* BIP 91 lock-in:
This hard fork had almost been avoided by the BIP 91 protocol that was launched a few days back and SegWit was locked-in by the miners. But most of the users and miners are not happy with the Soft fork and SegWit. It is just a temporary solution to the existing problem and most probably by the deadline of August 1, the consensus may not be reached. This means that the hard fork will likely happen.
* Post hard fork scenario:
If hard fork occurs, there will be two coins - Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. Holders of the BItcoin who are in possession of their private keys will be able to get the new currency if the split occurs. However, users who have their Bitcoin stored in exchanges like Coinbase who won't give users the private key will not get the new currency. Due to this, there will be a short term exodus of Bitcoin from these services.
* Uncertainities involved with the split:
There is one uncertainty involved with this. It is the question that which coin does currency miners support. If only enough miners support and mine the Bitcoin Cash, the hard fork can succeed. Another thing is which coin will be selected by protocols like Omni who work on top of Bitcoin after two versions of Bitcoin are available in the market.
The price of the Bitcoins in US Dollars has experienced a fall after the recent highs. This fall is much less than that occurred when the news of the Bitcoin fork was out for the first time. This means that Bitcoin surely has a future in the cryptocurrency industry whatever happens after August 1. Many people will be supporting Bitcoin Cash and the hard fork and they will be buying the BItcoins in order to get free Bitcoin Cash.
Applancer is an open platform for discussion on all things like Blockchain , Cryptocurrency and Ico news updates. As such, the opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the view of Applancer .
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