Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Hard Fork: The Competition is Heating Up

As the Bitcoin Cash hard fork approaches its scheduled date of November 15, the 2 opposing sides — supporters of Bitcoin Cash ABC and supporters of Bitcoin Cash Satoshi Vision (SV) — are showing signs of just how big a deal the divide is. Both sides have strong arguments and impassioned support, but as yet it remains unclear which side will win and which will be defeated.

Bitcoin Cash undergoes scheduled upgrades via hard forks twice a year. However, the hard fork scheduled for November 15 is turning out to be much more antagonistic than usual.

This is due to disagreements between major players in the BCH community. Therefore, the upcoming hard fork may very well split Bitcoin Cash into 2 separate blockchains and cryptocurrencies, which will then be supported by the different BCH community camps

Bitcoin Cash ABC

The name of this protocol is BCHABC, which will remain as a continuation of the original Bitcoin Cash chain. Therefore, the original Bitcoin Cash vision as portrayed by Roger Ver will remain with BCHABC after the hard fork.

It appears that most of the Bitcoin Cash community, as well as the original developers, are in support of BCHABC. Also, BCHABC will be backed by Bitmain, a giant mining organization with a significant amount of hash power.

Furthermore, the cryptocurrency exchanges Poloniex and HitBtc have already facilitated trading of both BCHABC and BCHSV. Once the fork happens, users will be able to convert their pre-forked tokens to corresponding onchain coins.

At the time of writing, BCHABC appears to be winning the race, as it’s trading around $396 and BCHSV is trading around $114.

Bitcoin Cash Satoshi Vision (SV)

The name of this protocol is BCHSV, and it will be the alternative chain in the hard fork. The direction of this coin is endorsed by Craig Wright, scoffed at by many as “Fake Satoshi.”

The BCHSV chain will use and follow the original specifications outlined by Satoshi Nakamoto in the Bitcoin whitepaper, hence the name SV or “Satoshi Vision.” For as contentious a hard fork as this is proving, the only actual difference between BCHSV and BCHABC is that SV will have a much larger block size of a proposed 128MB block size for the network.

While Bitcoin Cash SV is less popular among BCH community members, it still has substantial support. For instance, the mining giant Coingeek will support BCHSV as soon as the hard fork takes place.

However, Coingeek’s Calvin Ayer has said he will support BCHABC if it ends up winning the hashrate war, so there are dissenting voices even among their ranks.

The BCH Hard Fork Controversy

As with most hard forks involving a prominent cryptocurrency, this one has come with its fair share of controversy. Earlier this week, Ver and Wright, each side’s largest proponents, exchanged strong words.

Wright, who has claimed to be the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto (hence the nickname) – is believed to have written an email accusing Ver of hating Bitcoin and being an “enemy.”

The email allegedly said:

Side with ABC; you hate bitcoin, you are my enemy. You have f–king no idea what that means. You Will. I AM Satoshi. Have a nice life. You will now discover me when pissed off. And, no. You Could have had proof. Your choice. F–k you.

Ver later claimed that he had been fooled by Wright, who led him to believe that his intentions with BCH were genuine and aligned with Ver’s, when in fact they were not. Ver released an explanatory video of his feud with Wright on YouTube and Bitcoin.com.

The Outcome of Bitcoin Cash’s Hard Fork

Due to the rivalries between the divided BCH community, it seems unlikely that they will resolve their differences and prevent the hard fork on November 15.

The BCH hard fork will most likely happen, and unlike Bitcoin’s hard fork last year, only one coin is expected to survive.

Which coin do you support in the impending BCH hard fork? Do you think both BCHABC and BCHSV will survive for quite some time? Or will one or the other die off shortly after the fork? Let us know in the comment section below.