On August 1st, at 18:24:41 UTC, the blockchain for bitcoin “forked” into two cryptocurrencies – bitcoin and bitcoin cash. Bitcoin cash (BCC) is a completely new cryptocurrency available to those who have already held bitcoins. BCC is aimed at replacing cash and facilitating transactions with merchants globally. The “fork” created a duplicate version of the existing bitcoin blockchain based on the previous transaction history of the bitcoin blockchain, but allows for future transactions to be separate and different from those of the bitcoin chain. Similar blockchain forks have occurred for many different cryptocurrencies in the past. However, due to bitcoin’s fame and popularity in thee media, this fork has gotten a lot of attention.
For most current bitcoin holders, this means they will have access to both bitcoin, and bitcoin cash. Some bitcoin providers (e.g. Coinbase) do not plan on distributing bitcoin cash to their users, so the access to bitcoin cash differs from provider to provider.
In addition to the fork, the bitcoin core has also undergone a change in its code entitled BIP 148, which is the result of negotiations among various bitcoin stakeholders, and which should facilitate its adoption globally. The new bitcoin cash code has the controversial SegWit code removed.
So how does this fit in to the global picture? Cryptocurrencies are currently widely available, but it is the number of people that actively use it that will determine how effective they are. One of the limitations to Bitcoin is its transaction limit (currently capped at ~3/second, compared to ~15/s for PayPal, and ~2000/s for VISA). The bitcoin fork may lead to greater adoption of bitcoin globally, but only time will tell. So far, the results for the fork have been positive, with bitcoin trading at an all-time high above $3500. Brad Chun, CEO of blockchain startup Mooti Digital Identity, told CoinDesk:
“For early tech adopters who can’t fathom a market cap of over $50 billion or $100 billion for bitcoin, they haven’t seen anything yet. While we might see profit taking short-term, I view any dips as buying opportunities.”. Institutional money should begin investing in bitcoin rapidly with these prospects.
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