Pros of Bitcoin Cash
- Quicker transaction times than Bitcoin
- Offers low transaction costs
- Available for trading on most platforms
- Easy to buy and sell
Cons of Bitcoin Cash
- Reputation damaged by Bitcoin SV hard fork
- Lower adoption than Bitcoin
- Prone to large price fluctuations
History – The history of Bitcoin Cash trading
A hard fork in May 2017 saw Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash go their separate ways. It stemmed from a four-year dispute in the community over the scale and efficiency of Bitcoin. At the time, Bitcoin was easily the world’s leading cryptocurrency, but many still considered it to be pretty slow and inefficient. Some Bitcoin transactions took up to four days to complete, and very few users were keen on paying the US$28 fee required to speed up the process.
A band of crypto enthusiasts that had grown disillusioned with the direction Bitcoin had taken worked together to create Bitcoin Cash (BCH). It has a maximum block size of 8MB, compared to 1MB in the classic Bitcoin blockchain, and it uses zero configuration networking. These innovations are designed to make Bitcoin Cash quicker and cheaper to use than Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Cash started trading at roughly US$270 on August 1, 2017, which was a tenth of Bitcoin’s price at the time. Its all-time high came during intraday trading on December 20, 2017, when it hit $4,355.62, but it plummeted all the way down to $76.86 within the next 12 months.
That made several crypto investors wary of Bitcoin Cash trading, but it has rallied somewhat since then, and in early 2021 it reached its highest levels since October 2018. It remains a very volatile asset, but that is true of most cryptocurrencies, whether you
buy Bitcoin,
buy Ethereum
or
buy Binance Coin.
Development – What is the purpose behind Bitcoin Cash?
A group of Bitcoin activists featuring investors, entrepreneurs, developers and miners railed against plans to use SegWit to upgrade the network in 2017. SegWit was designed to increase capacity, but it also enables second layer solutions like the Lightning Network, and the activists were unhappy with this planned development.
They proposed a split, and a Chinese mining pool called ViaBTC came up with the name Bitcoin Cash. The blockchain and cryptocurrency split in two on August 1, 2017, in a process known as a hard fork. Amaury Sechet was the developer that forked Bitcoin Cash away from Bitcoin.
No individual is in charge of Bitcoin Cash, as it is a decentralized cryptocurrency. Six independent node teams collaborate in a distributed manner when developing BCH.
In 2018, nChain, Coingeek, and others sought to gain control over the Bitcoin Cash network, led by crypto pioneer Craig Wright and colourful gambling industry veteran Calvin Ayre. They were unable to push it in the direction they sought, so another hard fork saw them move onto their own blockchain, Bitcoin SV.
Another fork occurred in 2020. This time it was Sechet that wanted to have a greater influence in the development of Bitcoin Cash, but he did not have the community consensus, so he split onto yet another chain, Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHA). That strengthened the notion that no individual is in charge of developing Bitcoin Cash.
Statistics – Take a look at these before you buy Bitcoin Cash
Bitcoin Cash is similar to Bitcoin in that it uses a proof-of-work algorithm to timestamp each block. The hash function is SHA-256. The mining block reward is halved, just like Bitcoin, and it dropped to 6.25 BCH in 2020.
It is also identical to Bitcoin Cash in its supply limit of 21 million coins. The supply will approach, but not quite reach 21 million BCH, and issuance will stop by around 2140, by which point there will be 20,999,999.9769 BCH in circulation. The circulating supply of Bitcoin Cash tokens went past 18.5 million in early 2021.
You can find out the market cap, 24-hour trading volume, circulating supply, performance, market dominance and rank and volatility at the best Bitcoin Cash trading sites that allow you to
buy crypto currency online.
Security, Features and Uses – The many uses of Bitcoin Cash
The main difference between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash is that the latter has a significantly larger block size. That means it can handle many more transactions per second, while also solving the issues of payment delays and high fees that some users experienced on the BTC network.
The Bitcoin group decided not to scale the network, whereas the Bitcoin Cash faction chose to scale the blockchain in a bid to accommodate more users. Many people that buy Bitcoin Cash feel that it is focused on use, whereas Bitcoin is focused more on store of value.
Bitcoin is starting to mimic gold in some ways, as it is an asset that many see as a hedge against inflation during times when the economy is unreliable. Bitcoin Cash still has gold-like scarcity, as the supply is also capped at 21 million coins, but it is designed to be more easily spent than Bitcoin.
Transactions are rapid, anyone can accept them with a mobile device or desktop and they are cheap, regularly working out at less than a tenth of a cent. For that reason, people that buy Bitcoin Cash and champion it argue that it is vastly superior to fiat currencies like AUD and to Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Cash has a wide variety of use cases. It is not as widely accepted as Bitcoin, but many retailers, casinos, service providers and businesses accept BCH. You can buy Bitcoin Cash and spend it at thousands of participating merchants, buying everything from clothing, accessories, food and drink to holidays, precious metals, legal fees and utilities. It can be used to tip content creators and app users, while also fuelling smart contracts and private payments.
Bitcoin Cash has received a lot of negative publicity since the hard fork. Many in the Bitcoin community are opposed to it, and security is one of the key points they raise when attacking Bitcoin Cash. The larger block size associated with Bitcoin Cash – it has increased from 8MB to 32MB to address scalability issues – and lower hash rate makes it arguably more vulnerable to attacks, but it has not been subject to any high-profile security issues thus far.
Of course, you should always beware the possibility of Bitcoin Cash trading scams – if a random site touts itself as the best Bitcoin Cash trading but has poor or non-existent Bitcoin Cash trading reviews, you might want to give it a wide berth – but security fears have not actually been realised so far.
How to Trade – A guide to Bitcoin Cash trading
You can buy Bitcoin Cash at many different sites, as it is one of the 10 largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, but you should take the time to identify the most appealing Bitcoin Cash trading platforms. The leading exchanges are Binance, Coinbase and Kraken.
Binance is the largest and it covers a huge range of altcoins, allowing you to buy Bitcoin Cash alongside more than 300 others – for example,
Litecoin trading
and
XRP trading
– while it also offers pretty low trading fees. Beginners might prefer Coinbase, as it is slightly more user friendly for newcomers that want to buy crypto online, and it offers lower withdrawal fees.
First you need to register for an account. You will be asked to enter your name and email, choose a password, certify that you are 18 or older, and agree to the terms and conditions. At Binance you have to move a jigsaw piece to prove you are not a robot. Coinbase will ask you to upload a scan of photo ID and proof of physical address before allowing you to start Binance Cash trading.
When you are registered and ready to buy Bitcoin Cash, click on the “Buy Now” or “Buy / Sell” button to trigger the trading box. If you are using Coinbase, enter the amount you wish to spend and your preferred payment method, such as Visa or MasterCard. Change the cryptocurrency from the default setting of Bitcoin to Bitcoin Cash, and click “Preview Buy”
That triggers a new pop-up box, which will tell you the amount you will receive along with the Bitcoin Cash trading fee. If you are happy, click “Buy Now”. The process is very similar at Binance and other exchanges. At Binance, you simply have to click “Buy BNB” and you can then see the trading fee and confirm the transaction.
After you buy Bitcoin Cash, it is worth sending it to an external wallet as quickly as possible, as hackers target exchanges. A hard wallet or a paper wallet is the safest, but some people prefer the convenience of a software wallet.
You can switch to sell if you want to offload Bitcoin Cash. Your exchange account must be funded in order to make a sale. Enter the amount you wish to sell and follow the simple steps. You can also exchange Bitcoin Cash for other cryptocurrencies, or set up regular payments on a daily, weekly, bimonthly or monthly basis.
If you want to speculate on a change in price Plus500 is an excellent choice, as it allows you to buy Bitcoin Cash CFDs, Bitcoin CFDs, Ethereum CFDs and so on with leverage. Other options include eToro.
Future Outlook – What does the future hold for Bitcoin Cash trading?
Bitcoin Cash had a depressed price during a bear market between 2018 and 2020, but then it started to pick up, and it eventually returned to the price it began with. The daily transaction volume has been disappointing. Its devotees really believe in its potential, but it has to generate an upsurge in volume and encourage more people to buy Bitcoin Cash if it is to flourish in future.
A number of people have written ambitious Bitcoin Cash prediction articles about the Bitcoin Cash price in recent years, and they have largely been proved wrong. Yet there are several reasons to be bullish about its future outlook.
It naturally inherited everything that made Bitcoin so popular: a capped supply, a robust consensus mechanism, proof-of-work distribution, and quick and efficient transactions. Bitcoin Cash is faster and cheaper than Bitcoin, and just as reliable, so it stands a strong chance of being used for financial transactions in future. A Bitcoin Cash price prediction is always difficult, as it is a volatile asset, but it has weathered many storms and it could enjoy strong long-term growth for HODLers.
There have been significant leadership issues, and Bitcoin Cash’s progress has been hampered by in-fighting among the community, but after two hard forks it could enjoy a smoother ride in future. It continues to increase its use cases, which helps its future prospects. A new generation of users might also compare it to Bitcoin and find it to be functionally superior and cheaper, so Bitcoin Cash could thrive in future.
Reputation and Customer Feedback – Mixed reviews on Bitcoin Cash
The reputation of Bitcoin Cash really depends on who you ask. Most people in the Bitcoin Community hate it and everything it stands for, and they are extremely disparaging of it. Some have even worked hard to damage its reputation.
Yet it has a smaller group of loyal fans that will defend it to the hilt. They accuse its detractors of plotting against it and funded concerted efforts to kill it off, but Bitcoin Cash is still standing and its existing customers providing very positive feedback.
Conclusion – Is it worth investing in Bitcoin Cash?
Bitcoin Cash is an intriguing cryptocurrency that has caught the eye of many Australian investors in recent years. You should conduct thorough research before buying Bitcoin Cash to ensure you understand the risks, and make sure you stick to the popular, reputable sites recommended on this page. It is better to hold Bitcoin Cash in an offline wallet for safety reasons, and then you can move it to an exchange whenever you decide to sell it.
