Bitcoin Cash recently celebrated its first anniversary. After successfully splitting from Bitcoin, the project has established a key position in the cryptocurrency world. That situation may soon change, for better or worse. A planned fork of BCH is raising some serious concerns, which could be disastrous for the project’s future.
The Bitcoin Cash Fork Debacle
The creation of Bitcoin Cash has always been somewhat controversial. An argument between Bitcoin “maximalists” and “big blockers” resulted in two different versions of the same cryptocurrency. Although both projects have their merit, BCH has never been able to rival Bitcoin in terms of market cap and overall traction. It now appears the forked currency faces a potential community split of its own.
The upcoming potential Bitcoin Cash fork is the result of introducing upgrades and overall network improvements. At this time, it seems two new versions of BCH may be created moving forward. Bitcoin Cobra, an anonymous Bitcoin contributor, made the Cobra Client hard fork clear several weeks ago. On the other hand, there is Bitcoin SV, proposed by Craig Wright and his company nChain.
These two proposals derive from Bitcoin ABC’s vision for the future of Bitcoin Cash. While neither Cobra Bitcoin nor Craig Wright agrees with that vision, others think differently. Bitmain founder Jihan Wu already dismissed Craig Wright’s idea and remains in favor of Bitcoin ABC’s approach. The compromise proposed by Cobra may offer a middle path rather than letting an actual fork occur. A sensible approach needs to prevail if this currency is to survive.
Clash of Opinions Remains Problematic
Regardless of how the scenario plays out, the conflicting opinions regarding Bitcoin Cash highlight a key problem. Bitcoin was originally forked into BCH because of ideological differences. That initial effort was backed by Craig Wright, who now seemingly disagrees with other developers. This also shows major changes should not be introduced without consulting the public or achieving consensus.
The consensus layer of any cryptocurrency plays an integral role. Making sudden changes to that aspect will always spark debates. CoinGeek seems to favor Bitcoin SV, whereas Bitmain tends to stick with Bitcoin ABC. Both CoinGeek and Bitmain are major backers of Bitcoin Cash, thus their influence cannot be underestimated.
Depending on the outcome of this hard fork, things may look very different come November 16th. The hard fork is expected to occur on November 15th and could lead to multiple versions of Bitcoin Cash emerging. That could prove to be very problematic for the project, which currently maintains a $7.5 billion market cap. This debate is far from over at this stage, although the final outcome remains to be determined.
What do you think about the upcoming Bitcoin Cash fork? How will it impact the BCH market? Let us know in the comments below.
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