The infamous Bitcoin Cash (BCH) hard fork/network upgrade went through on its set date of November 15, but the war is still far from over.
The BCH chain has successfully forked into 2 blockchains, resulting in BCHABC and BCHSV. Both coins are now trading on various exchanges and are in competition for survival by gaining dominance over the hash power.
Before we get into the current hash war the 2 BCH versions are in, we’ll first look at the differences between BCHABC and BCHSV.
Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHABC)
First off, the Bitcoin Cash ABC community and project are led by the Bitcoin Cash evangelist, Roger Ver and the co-founder of Bitmain, Jihan Wu. Miners supporting BCHABC include BTC.com, Antpool, and Bitcoin.com.
This version of BCH aims to preserve the original functionality and vision of the Bitcoin Cash network and currently preserves the block size of 32MB. However, because the hard fork is technically an upgrade, there are some improvements.
As mentioned in the official post about BCHABC, supporters of the network will take a simple 2-pronged approach to scaling.
- “Remove immediate implementation bottlenecks to increasing the block size limit.”
- “Lay the technical groundwork for massive future on-chain scaling.”
Additionally, the BCHABC chain has implemented code for the interoperability between cryptocurrencies, something which Bitcoin Cash didn’t have before.
Bitcoin Cash Satoshi Vision (BCHSV)
Bitcoin Cash SV is supported and led by Craig Wright, dubbed “Fake Satoshi.” The miners supporting his vision include Coingeek and Bitcoin.org.
The changes to Bitcoin Cash in this hard forked chain are far more dramatic than BCHABC’s changes. For one thing, block size has quadrupled from 32MB to 128MB. As well, changes to the protocol have been made to ease the transition to smart contracts on the BCHSV network.
The Hash War: Who’s Winning?
Before we get into the nitty gritty of this war, we must explain what a hash war is and why it’s vital to a network’s success.
Basically, the blockchain that receives the greatest amount of hash power (mining power) will become more secure with a longer blockchain. The network that fails to gain the majority of hash power will lose momentum and the miners will move on to mine the more successful and longer blockchain.
The hard fork started off with BCHABC in the lead, with the first block mined at approximately 1:00pm EST, November 15. Approximately 22 minutes later the BCHSV block was mined, which marked the official time of the hard fork, with 2 seperate BCH blockchains.
BCHABC was first to come out of the hard fork and continues to lead the way with a 61% hash rate while BCHSV has 39%.
Popular crypto analyst and investor Joseph Young soon took this news to Twitter, stating:
Bitcoin Cash (ABC) ahead, more hash power, more activity, higher price. 4x higher price (margin).
Seems like a win for BCH. Jihan Wu and Chinese miners not even needed. Certainly not enough for a 51% attack on BCH. BSV nodes reportedly crashing.
Faketoshi lost, community won pic.twitter.com/5LzuKMX3lf
— Joseph Young (@iamjosephyoung) November 15, 2018
However, in response to the sentiment that BCHABC has already won the hash war, Wright tweeted:
Just a reminder
Sustainable hash
Not a day, not weeks, not a burst.
Continuous competition until one dies as we do not stop pic.twitter.com/UbHPWRF7UF
— Dr Craig S Wright (@ProfFaustus) November 15, 2018
In response to Wright, the co-founder of Bitmain and BCHABC supporter, Wu stated on Reddit that he will not give up on the hash war and let Wright win:
I have no intention to start a hash war with CSW, because if I do (by relocating hash power from BTC mining to BCH mining), BTC price will dump below yearly support; it may even breach $5,000. But since [Craig Wright] is relentless, I am all in to fight till death!
Effects of the Hash War
Overall, the hash war between BCHABC and BCHSV has been detrimental to both projects, as they are both mining at substantial losses.
The electricity costs to mine these coins far outweigh what they’re worth. It’s been reported that both networks have lost approximately $400,000 each.
Bitcoin Cash – ABC & SV split metrics update
SV miners have estimated gross losses of around $397,000, compared to ABC miners on $365,000 of losses. Assuming electricity is the only cost. ABC has an 11 block lead overall.https://t.co/U9hbK4peip pic.twitter.com/MKpHmJ49SB
— BitMEX Research (@BitMEXResearch) November 17, 2018
Therefore, it appears there is no clear winner in this war as both networks are losing. However, in terms of blockchain support, BCHABC is currently in the lead.
At this time, it’s still unclear who will come out on top in the long run — if anyone at all.
