WHAT IS BITCOIN CASH AND HOW WILL IT AFFECT EVERYONE

Two days.

That’s how long I had been happy for BIP91 until Bitcoin Cash (BCC) was announced on Saturday the 22nd of July. Is this good news? Let’s find out.

More than 90% of the Bitcoin miners expressed their happiness toward SegWit as well. That, unfortunately, wasn’t enough for the “other camp” to come up with their own stuff.

Folks, who opposed the SegWit technology, had announced that Bitcoin would be hard forking anyway. And it will be happening quite soon.

WHEN IS BITCOIN SPLITTING UP?
Well, do you remember getting excited for the 1st of August? That’s right, it’s the same date.

In under a week, we will have two separate Bitcoins: the original Bitcoin as you know it today (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCC).

WHAT IS BITCOIN CASH AND WHAT’S NEW?
Bitcoin Cash is a peer-to-peer electronic cash. In short, anyways.

Its sole purpose is to focus on transaction capacity due to its 8MB block size.

BCC comes with replay and wipeout protection. This ensures two Bitcoin chains won’t get into each other’s way to disrupt user experience.

It also eliminates the quadratic hashing problem as well as improves hardware wallet security.

In addition to that, the Cash version allows for adjusting the PoW difficulty (proof-of-work) in a more efficient manner. This means that the 2016 block difficulty could be adjusted as required.

WHY IS BITCOIN SPLITTING INTO TWO (AGAIN)?
As mentioned above, some people weren’t happy with the SegWit way.

But that’s understandable. There are a lot of different wants, needs, beliefs and wishes. It’s hard to please everyone.

It’s not developers’ fault either. Okay, they’ve been extremely vocal and political for the past three years (and very ineffective at finding the middle ground) . But the fact is, they just write code and it’s up to people (and miners) whether to run it or not.

Which brings us to this very difference:

If a chain is updated with a soft fork, the software is backward compatible. However, its users are left with no choice but to automatically accept new rules. Whether they like it or not.

However, if a hard fork is implemented on a blockchain, there’s not going back. Although, it’s not as dreadful as many portray it to be. The code can be buggy and hacky but hard forks give you a choice: you can accept it or stick with the old software.

Since the whole cryptocurrency concept is based on a decentralized network and you’re put in total control of your personal/financial affairs, it seems obvious that you would also want to make a decision whether to accept a new proposal or not.

And that is why Bitcoin is splitting into two – too many people want too many outcomes from one coin that can’t accommodate everyone’s needs and hence the split.

As you can see, there’s a merit to both. Which side are you on?

PREPARE YOURSELF FOR BITCOIN (EXTRA) CASH
There’s good news also. You can’t double up, but you can seize this opportunity to make a quick buck.

How?

Get control of your private keys.

When Bitcoin splits into two, you will end up with both versions of the coin.

If you store your Bitcoins on an exchange, move them off of it as soon as you can before it’s too late. Otherwise, you won’t be able to benefit.

Do you keep your coins on a hot wallet or any other third-party client?

Transfer it out to a hardware or paper wallet asap.

The crucial thing to do is to control your wallet private key. That’s the only way you can end up with two versions.

Want more good news?

Bitcoin Cash (BCC) futures is currently trading at $450 a piece on ViaBTC as of today (26th of July 2017). As you can see, it’s worth a good deal so you should definitely consider getting your hands on them private keys!

HOW WILL BITCOIN CASH AFFECT THE ORIGINAL BITCOIN?
Good question.

As of today, nobody knows and that’s the honest answer.

It might take off or it might destroy both. One thing is certain, though. Whatever happens, somebody had gone into great lengths to pull this off.

There may be several issues with this approach:

– who’s gonna mine what

– at what hash rate

– and how will this affect

– the price of both coins

We should get a glimpse into the new reality soon after the 1st of August. What is your prediction?