The Bitcoin Cash hard fork is fast approaching. But when exactly will the cryptocurrency hard fork? And what does it mean for your Bitcoin Cash (BCH) investment and Bitcoin Cash price? Here are the 12 things you should know about the Bitcoin Cash hard fork long before it happens.
1. The hard fork won’t affect your BCH.
Will you lose your Bitcoin Cash (BCH) if you don’t prepare for the hard fork? No. Your cryptocurrency will remain in your cryptocurrency wallet or exchange, same as ever, though Bitcoin Cash price could change a lot.
2. You could double your BCH.
Not only will you still have your BCH, but a hard fork means that the BCH blockchain is splitting in two. In other words, your BCH is cloned, and you get the same amount in the new cryptocurrency, Bitcoin SV (BCHSV), as you have in BCH.
3. Don’t assume you’ll automatically get Bitcoin SV (BCHSV).
A Bitcoin Cash hard fork does not mean that everyone, everywhere will open their wallet to find Bitcoin SV there, too. If you store your crypto in a wallet, make sure you have your private key, so you can access your crypto on both blockchains.
And if you keep your cryptocurrency on an exchange, the exchange has to support the fork. Without Bitcoin SV support, you cannot hold it on that exchange.
4. Binance, Bitcoin.com, Coinbase, Coinbase Pro and Coindelta support the fork.
If you store Bitcoin Cash (BCH) on Coinbase, Coinbase Pro or Binance or you’ll receive Bitcoin SV, too. In other words, these cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets support the hard fork.
Additionally, Bitcoin.com will offer compatible mining, wallet and other services after the fork.
5. This isn’t the first Bitcoin Cash hard fork.
Back in 2017, we got Bitcoin vs. Bitcoin Cash following the first Bitcoin hard fork. Essentially, the Bitcoin developing community split because not everyone wanted to update blockchain technology in the same way.
Though the entire community wanted to lower transaction fees and times, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) developers wanted to make it way easier to process transactions (which is why they named it Bitcoin ‘Cash’). Though the Bitcoin developer community also updated its protocol, it still has relatively high fees and can process fewer transactions.
6. BCH hard forks every 6 months.
This hard fork isn’t a surprise. From the beginning of BCH, developers have planned on hard forking the currency every six months. Why? Protocol upgrades.
Not all hard forks are the result of disputes between developers. For example, Monero (XMR) just hard forked without creating a new crypto. Only when a minority decides to adopt a protocol so different from the majority does the blockchain split to create a new currency.
7. This fork is the result of a disagreement among developers.
Since there will be two cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin SV (BCHSV), we know that there is controversy in the developer community. Different developer groups—Bitcoin SV, Satoshi’s Vision, BitcoinUnlimited and Bitcoin ABC…—do not agree on specific aspects of the protocol upgrade. As a result, they’re adopting different ones and forking the blockchain into two.
8. Bitcoin ABC and nChain are two main factions in the developer community.
Data courtesy of Coin Dance
Why is the blockchain splitting? Because two significant factions of the BCH community, Bitcoin ABC and nChain, want different, non-compatible node implementations.
In August 2018, the larger Bitcoin ABC community shared Bitcoin ABC 0.18.0. The CEO of Bitmain, Jihan Wu, supports it.
This upgrade entails:
- Changing BCH scripting language
- Smart contracts
- Oracles
- More scalability
- Limit transaction size to 100 bytes
Blockchain developer nChain does not agree with Bitcoin ABC 0.18.0. Shortly after Bitcoin ABC shared its proposal, nChain shared a different implementation called Bitcoin SV. SV stands for “Satoshi Vision,” because they’re reverting back to an older Bitcoin implementation. Additionally, it’s supported by Craig Wright, who maintains that he is Satoshi Nakamoto.
The nChain proposal entails:
- Increasing BCH block size to 128MB from 32MB
- Taking away 201 opcodes per script limit
Specifically, around 60% of the network’s nodes support Bitcoin ABC, and 28% support Bitcoin SV.
9. Not everyone wants the blockchain to split.
Not everyone is team Bitcoin ABC or Bitcoin SV. In fact, some big developers like Andrew Stone want to maintain the BCH’s one blockchain. As a result, Stone has suggested a BCH full node implementation proposed BUIP098. This is also called ‘Bitcoin Unlimited’s Strategy for the November 2018 Hard Fork’.
BUIP098 makes Bitcoin ABC and Bitcoin SV compatible for miners, according to the proposal. In other for this to happen, miners have to transition to Bitcoin Unlimited, a client from 2016.
10. Bitcoin Cash price has gone up significantly.
CoinMarketCap 11/6/2018
The cryptocurrency’s price has been on the move all week. In the past week, its price has increased by 44%. And after it’s price leveled off for a bit, it rose to $610.
11. Exchanges will stop BCH deposits and withdrawals before the hard fork.
If you plan on depositing or withdrawing BCH, make sure you do it before the hard fork. Binance, Coindelta, Coinbase and Coinbase Pro will freeze BCH holdings anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes before the fork.
12. The Bitcoin Cash hard fork BCH will Happen on November 15.
The hard fork will take place on 11/15/18 sometime after 11:30 am EST. Of course, you may not be able to touch your BCH before that.
Updates:
72% of Bitcoin Cash miners support BCHSV
The majority of the mining pool is reportedly favoring the SV Network, according to Coin Dance data. This means that it currently has the highest hash rate. This means that the network can create blocks, and therefore process transactions, at a much faster rate.
Coinbase is Stopping Deposits and Withdrawals Earlier
Coinbase will now stop accepting BCH deposits and withdrawals at 11 am EST on Coinbase. Additionally, Coinbase Pro will stop trading the cryptocurrency at the same time.
Biggest Names on Each Side
BCH ABC
Calvin Ayre: CoinGeek founder
Twitter: @CalvinAyre
Craig Wright: Original Bitcoin developer
Twitter: @ProfFaustus
BCHSV
Roger Ver: Bitcoin investor and spokesperson
Twitter: @rogerkver
Jihan Wu: Bitmain co-founder
Twitter: @JihanWu
What’s Next for BCH?
There is still a lot we don’t know about the Bitcoin Cash hard fork. Will BCH price moon and then plummet immediately after? Will other secure exchanges and wallets start supporting BCH in the days before the fork? What will Bitcoin SV (BCHSV) adoption look like?
Whether we’re talking about lower market cap coins like SNT and CMT or BTC, it’s impossible to know Bitcoin Cash prices future cryptocurrency prices. All we know for sure is that you won’t be losing your BCH. And, if anything, you could soon have BCH and BCHSV.
