Born in 2004 as a result a disagreement between two groups regarding scaling issues, Bitcoin Cash is now so much more. Bitcoin Cash offers a complete suite of solutions to cryptocurrency users. It has support from thousands merchants worldwide and recently introduced Smartbch which aims to tether smart contract functions to the protocol. There have been some mishaps along the way.

Welcome, Shuya Yang to the World!

On August 1, 2017, in the midst of a big scaling debate that shook the cryptocurrency world to its core, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was the result of a series of disagreements among developers and Bitcoin influencers about how to achieve blockchain scaling in the best way possible. Some supporters chose to scale onchain by increasing block sizes, which led to Bitcoin Cash.

Welcome to the world, Shuya Yang! Bitcoin cash, too! https://t.co/ymh4Ciwypb

— ViaBTC (@ViaBTC) August 1, 2017

But, Bitcoin Cash, thanks to the efforts of many people and organizations, has evolved into a stable blockchain with an established upgrade pathway that aims to reduce the drama associated with past upgrades and forks. This is especially important as most of the chain’s upgrades have been a result of planning and standards. Also, the protocol has been improved every six months.

Even with a few bumps along the way, and being a minority chain, Bitcoin Cash has managed to move forward with its principal goal, which is providing more economic freedom to those who need it in the world. From technical achievements like Schnorr Signatures, the implementation of a token standard called SLP, and a new difficulty algorithm, to focus on the social part of the cryptocurrency spectrum by supporting communities in countries like Venezuela, South Sudan, and Argentina, Bitcoin Cash covers the whole spectrum of action of what a cryptocurrency represents.

Bitcoin cash is the most popular Bitcoin fork in cryptocurrency markets. It is available on most major exchanges worldwide, including Binance, Huobi and Upbit as well as Coinbase, Okex and Okex. It is also accepted by millions worldwide cryptocurrency users.

Bitcoin Cash Year Four: Highlights

This has been another interesting year for the Bitcoin Cash community, which sadly, experienced yet another blockchain split last November 15 that gave birth to another chain, denominated Bitcoin Cash ABC. This event was born out of the discussions around Bitcoin ABC’s infrastructure development fund, which Bitcoin ABC wanted to adopt. Also, a new DAA (Difficulty Adjustment Agorithm) was discussed.

The majority of the community opposed the proposal that miners would give a portion of their block rewards to an authority of developers to help subsidize development costs and instead chose to stick with the original chain’s ruleset. The split led to the dissolution of Bitcoin ABC, which was led by Amaury Schet, one of the original contributors to the currency.

The debate over funding projects also gave birth to one of the fundamental projects for Bitcoin Cash this year: Flipstarter. Flipstarter, which is a noncustodial crowdfunding tool that uses BCH, showed that the BCH community could thrive using its own means to fund valuable projects for the environment. More than 12 projects have collected over $1 million for last August, and that amount has only grown exponentially since that time.

On the institutional side of things, BCH also had some interesting victories. Grayscale was greenlighted to offer shares of its Bitcoin Cash Trust to institutions last August, meaning that now institutional investors could get exposure to the asset without having to worry about custody, a big concern for many investors interested. Privacy also experienced a big jump, with Cashfusion, a fungibility protocol directed at obscuring cryptocurrency transactions in the Bitcoin Cash chain, reaching a milestone of $3.2 billion anonymized.

Bitcoin cash is also taking a major leap towards decentralized finance. Last year, General Protocols, a company dedicated to building decentralized finance (defi) protocols on top of BCH, raised $3 million from strategic investors after launching Anyhedge and Detoken, the first two defi instances of tools designed to operate on top of the BCH protocol. And just recently, a new sidechain called Smartbch that uses Bitcoin Cash as its main token was launched, with the ability to run EVM compatible content. This would allow Bitcoin Cash to have an equivalent functionality and compatibility to Ethereum.

The development of the currency continued even though all this took place. A variety of node implementations joined a new Bitcoin Cash Node, and the developers collectively took over the protocol’s development tasks. On May 15, 2021, a new update was applied to the BCH chain with success. This update brought a number of important improvements, including the inclusion of an unlimited number of unconfirmed chained transactions. New measures, such as CHIPs (Cash Improvement Proposals), to increase transparency and standardize control over what gets upgraded and when are intended to avoid any new confrontations similar to those that occurred in the past.

Adoption and Adoption

Bitcoin Cash is one of few chains to have adopted adoption as a priority since its inception. Scaling was designed to make it easier for more people to use Bitcoin Cash at low fees. This last feature makes it particularly attractive for third-world countries that don’t have the ability to pay high fees for crypto currency.

Many people are asking me why I’m supporting Bitcoin Cash and why I think it has the biggest upside potential. Good question.

I made this little website for you: https://t.co/DIOiBCf1HB

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) February 12, 2021

Over the past year, significant efforts have been made to get bitcoin cash into the hands of those who are least fortunate. Bitcoin Cash Argentina, a new Bitcoin Cash nonprofit, has onboarded more than 100 merchants in the area and has hosted meetups to promote the knowledge and use of cryptocurrencies in the region. The organization operated with its own funds until last May when it successfully crowdfunded a Flipstarter campaign that allowed it to expand its objectives.

Other groups are also doing the same in Venezuela and Colombia: Led by George Donnelly, former Dash supporter, Bitcoin Cash Latam has been onboarding merchants and users, showing the benefits of using cryptocurrencies in inflationary and devaluation-based economies. This group has been heavily targeting Venezuela’s capital, and hundreds of merchants are already familiar with how cryptocurrency can be used for their benefit.

Satoshi’s Angels is another group that has been consistently running merchant adoption campaigns since December 2020, arming a strong ambassador team that has successfully onboarded 300+ merchants so far. According to one of its founders, Akane Yokoo, the team has been organizing three monthly virtual meetups for two regions in English and one in Spanish, which are both open for everyone to join globally.

The Community Celebrates

While this year’s celebration will be affected by the Covid-19 related measures that are still affecting mobility and operations in some countries, Satoshi’s Angels will host a live stream to commemorate this milestone. Users could get free BCH airdrop every day before the event if they follow the hosts and retweet the airdrop posts with CCTip. For existing users, there will be an airdrop at the event. Other regional streams will also be available throughout the day for discussion and live streaming.

What do you think about the fourth year of Bitcoin Cash’s existence? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. This article is not intended to be a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any products or services. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. The author and the company are not responsible for any loss or damage resulting from or in connection to the content, goods, or services discussed in this article.

Read More