Bitcoin Cash: Why It's Forking the Blockchain And What That Means

What is Bitcoin Cash?

So, what is it? And how does it differ from bitcoin?

There are two main changes of note:

It increases the block size to 8 MB.
It removes SegWit, a code change that might activate on the bitcoin blockchain by the end of August.
Some, including a few of the project's supporters, call Bitcoin Cash an "altcoin," a term that usually denotes a fork of the software that creates a new cryptocurrency, with its own market.

Indeed, the cryptocurrency is currently trading at $461, meaning it's worth about 18% of bitcoin's current price of $2,568, in an already-open futures market.

Unlike other altcoins, though, Bitcoin Cash's transaction history would be the same as bitcoin's – at least up until the point of the split. So, if and when Bitcoin Cash splits off, users would have bitcoin on both blockchains.

Another difference is the project says it will support multiple implementations of its software, a move that's not surprising given the criticism that Bitcoin Core's software is too dominant on the bitcoin network.

BitcoinABC is the first software to implement the Bitcoin Cash protocol, but the goal is for there to be many implementations.

Culianu said that both Bitcoin Unlimited and Bitcoin Classic, other implementations that aim to increase bitcoin’s block size, are working on a version compatible with Bitcoin Cash.

These might or might not be ready for August 1.

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