Bitcoin Cash

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a cryptocurrency launched in 2017. The asset is a direct fork of the Bitcoin network, conceived to restore the original medium-of-exchange properties of digital cash.

Bitcoin Cash functions as a Layer-1 blockchain dedicated to fast, inexpensive on-chain payments. It solves Bitcoin’s chronic congestion problem by drastically expanding the block size, enabling thousands of low-cost transactions per block rather than being crippled by a 1MB ceiling. Merchants, payment processors, and everyday users benefit from settlement finality measured in seconds, not hours.

The network operates on its own blockchain using proof-of-work with the SHA-256 hashing algorithm. Miners compete to find a valid hash, targeting a new block every ten minutes, with difficulty recalculated after each block via a moving window of 144 blocks—a design that replaced the original, instability-prone Emergency Difficulty Adjustment in November 2017. No second-layer patch was needed.

The block size limit started at 8MB, later quadrupling to 32MB in 2018, allowing far greater transactional throughput than Bitcoin’s 1MB ceiling. This isn’t just a parameter tweak; it fundamentally shifts the economics of on-chain settlement, making microtransactions viable without reliance on custodial Lightning hubs. The chain maintains backward compatibility with the original Bitcoin UTXO model and uses the same base58 address format, though with a distinct cashaddr prefix for differentiation.

A coalition of disaffected Bitcoin developers, Chinese miners, and early investors—including Roger Ver, mining pool ViaBTC, and the anonymous architect of the @Bitcoin handle—pushed the hard fork that activated on August 1, 2017 at block 478,559. Every Bitcoin holder received an equal amount of BCH at the split. A bitter November 2018 hashwar fractured the community into Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV), and a later 2020 schism spun off eCash (XEC).

The project’s animating purpose is to deliver a censorship-resistant, globally accessible form of digital cash that can be used for everyday commerce without crippling fees or hours-long confirmation backlogs. This stands in stark contrast to the ‘digital gold’ store-of-value narrative that came to dominate Bitcoin after SegWit’s activation and the block size impasse. Bitcoin Cash rejects off-chain scaling patches like the Lightning Network, insisting that on-chain capacity upgrades preserve the permissionless, decentralized nature of the original peer-to-peer electronic cash system described in the 2008 whitepaper.

BCH serves as the native settlement unit on the chain: every transaction requires a fee denominated in BCH, and miners receive freshly minted coins plus those fees as a block reward. There is no native staking or governance token; the economic security is maintained entirely through hash power. Smart contract functionality exists on the chain, but BCH’s primary utility remains value transfer, not programmable complexity.

Miners secure the network by committing SHA-256 hardware and earn block subsidies, creating a direct incentive to hold and liquidate BCH for electricity costs. Merchants, payment gateways like BitPay, and peer-to-peer users hold BCH to pay for goods, settle invoices, or make cross-border remittances at negligible cost. The cryptocurrency has gained notable legal traction: U.S. regulators treat it as a commodity, Colorado accepts it for tax payments, and major platforms—PayPal, Venmo, Robinhood—support custody, purchase, and transfer.

Bitcoin Cash has a maximum supply of 21,000,000 tokens. Currently, 20,025,781.15 are in circulation. With a market capitalization of $9,119,941,983, Bitcoin Cash ranks #16 among all cryptocurrencies.