Bitcoin Cash Fork and Other Cryptocurrencies

 On August 1st, 2017, long debates between bitcoin proponents and disagreements on how to solve its problems resulted in a currency split. The Bitcoin standard was broken in two, with the original system unaffected and the new Bitcoin Cash standard added. This was less like a stock market split and more like a software fork. Every person or organization who owned Bitcoin in any amount immediately owned an equal amount of Bitcoin Cash, with sales and transfers of both currencies occurring normally after the split. Like the original Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash is entirely digital and has no real-world physical component (despite the name).

The split is a hard fork in software terms. The separate Bitcoin Cash peer-to-peer system allows for eight times more transactions per block, making it a better (but not necessarily equal) competitor to credit and debit cards for constant online and in-person sales. The operators of Bitcoin Cash hope that it will become a more widely-accepted currency for standard purchases, like coffee shops or supermarkets.

Because of the newer system, Bitcoin Cash has not benefited from the explosive growth of value that the original Bitcoin Cash has experienced. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is trading at approximately $325 per unit, less than 10% of the value of the original Bitcoin. That’s not necessarily a bad thing for the new standard: a currency with a smaller range of market fluctuation and a slower, more steady growth rate may be appealing to businesses. But at the moment, Bitcoin Cash transactions aren’t supported by any notable merchants, aside from existing cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets.

Without major support from large online or physical retailers, Bitcoin Cash seems unlikely to become as successful as the original Bitcoin. It’s more likely that the forked standard will join the ever-expanding list of competing cryptocurrencies without any notable application beyond the cryptocurrency market itself. These competing currencies use peer-to-peer systems similar to the original Bitcoin, but with significant changes in cryptographic methods and terms. Examples include Litecoin, Ethereum, and Zcash.

None of the competitors to Bitcoin has reached any notable fraction of its current value, and support from retailers outside of the growing and somewhat speculative niche of cryptocurrency exchanges is minimal.

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