Bitcoin Cash was founded after years of Bitcoin political drama that unfolded between 2010 and 2017. Led by Roger Ver and co, the Bitcoin Cash hard fork occurred at block height 478,559. Bitcoin Cash created a new chain, split from Bitcoin, with a rule change that would have been incompatible with the OG Bitcoin blockchain. Alongside Bitcoin Cash came BCH - the cryptocurrency that runs on the network. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash has a market cap of over $4 billion USD, making it the fifth largest blockchain in the crypto market by market cap. We’ve decided to take a look at the hard fork history of Bitcoin Cash, to determine what makes the cryptocurrency what it is today.

An overview of Bitcoin Cash

Bitcoin Cash broke off from the main Bitcoin blockchain in August 2017, when Bitcoin Cash wallets began to reject Bitcoin (BTC) transactions and blocks. It is the most successful hard fork in cryptocurrency history, partly due to the fact that it is backed by many notable figures in the crypto community, as well as successful exchanges. Bitcoin Cash allows for blocks of 8 megabytes, and did not adopt the SegWit protocol. Bitcoin Cash is a successful blockchain in its own right, but unfortunately hardcore Bitcoin maximalists sometimes view it as nothing but a knockoff of Bitcoin.

A Brief History of Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork:

Let’s take a look at the hard fork history of Bitcoin Cash:

In November 2018, Bitcoin Cash split again - built on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain it hard forked into Bitcoin ABC or Bitcoin Adjustable Blocksize Cap (BCH ABC) andBitcoin SV or Bitcoin Cash Satoshi’s Version (BSV). However, BCH ABC is still referred to as BCH.

Bitcoin SV aims to bring back the values and technology that Satoshi Nakamoto originally outlined in his whitepaper - values of decentralization, transparency, and using the cryptocurrency as a payment and trade method while elevating the network.

BSV is run by Craig Wright, who has previously claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto. He famously fought the Bitcoin Cash hash war against Roger Ver, which affected both the price of BCH and also led to major changes in the crypto market.

During the hard fork, both BCH and BSV’s mining powers were shifted from BTC to BCH, which caused Bitcoin’s price to drop.

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Where are we now?

After taking a look at the hard fork history of Bitcoin Cash, it’s pretty clear that there are some splits within the Bitcoin community. However, Bitcoin Cash (both BSV and BCH) remain relatively thriving cryptocurrencies, that supposedly remain true to the overall values of the original Bitcoin blockchain. Ultimately, the hard forks have resulted in fairly solid coins and more diversity in the Bitcoin community.

