What sets Bitcoin apart from Bitcoin Cash?

Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash are both digital currencies, but they differ in a few key aspects. Historically, their differences stem from a disagreement within the Bitcoin community on how to scale the network effectively.

Bitcoin (BTC) is the original cryptocurrency and has the highest market capitalization among all digital currencies. It operates on the Segregated Witness (SegWit) protocol, which allows for increased transaction capacity by separating transaction signatures from the main data block.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was created as a result of a hard fork from Bitcoin in 2017. The main difference between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash lies in the block size limit. Bitcoin Cash increased the block size from 1MB to 8MB, allowing for more transactions to be included in each block. This was done to address scalability concerns and enable faster and cheaper transactions.

Another distinction is that Bitcoin Cash aims to prioritize peer-to-peer electronic cash transactions, while Bitcoin is seen more as a store of value and a digital gold. Bitcoin Cash proponents argue that its larger block size and lower transaction fees make it more suitable for day-to-day transactions, while Bitcoin supporters believe its robust security and wider adoption make it a better store of value.

more differences between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash:

1. Mining Algorithm: Bitcoin uses the SHA-256 mining algorithm, while Bitcoin Cash uses the SHA-256 mining algorithm with an adjustable difficulty parameter. This difference allows miners to switch between BTC and BCH more easily, depending on which coin is more profitable to mine.

2. Development and Governance: Bitcoin has a more decentralized development and governance structure, with multiple independent developer teams contributing to its codebase and decision-making process. In contrast, Bitcoin Cash has a more centralized development team, primarily led by Bitcoin ABC.

3. Community and Adoption: Bitcoin has a larger community and wider adoption compared to Bitcoin Cash. It is more widely recognized and accepted as a form of payment across various industries and countries. Bitcoin Cash, although growing in popularity, has a smaller user base and is accepted by fewer merchants.

4. SegWit and Lightning Network: Bitcoin implemented the Segregated Witness (SegWit) upgrade, which improves scalability and enables additional second-layer solutions like the Lightning Network for faster and cheaper transactions. Bitcoin Cash does not have SegWit implemented nor has it fully embraced the Lightning Network.

5. Price and Market Value: Bitcoin has a significantly higher price and market value than Bitcoin Cash. As of now, Bitcoin is considered the leading cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization and price per coin.

Bitcoin Cash is a separate blockchain that was created as a fork of Bitcoin, retaining much of its technical and operational similarities. Nonetheless, there are a few critical distinctions:

- Bitcoin Cash has a maximum block size of 32 MB, whereas Bitcoin's is limited to 1 MB.
- The mining difficulty for Bitcoin Cash adjusts after every block, as opposed to every 2016 blocks in Bitcoin.
- Bitcoin Cash does not implement SegWit (Segregated Witness) technology, which allows for some data to be stored outside the blockchain, thereby increasing block capacity and transaction confirmation speed.

In 2018, Bitcoin Cash split into two separate entities: BCHABC and BCHSV. Currently, BCHABC, known simply as BCH, is the more dominant and actively traded coin on the majority of exchanges. On the other hand, BCHSV (Bitcoin SV) has gained less popularity and demand.

Overall, the creation of Bitcoin Cash aimed to address scalability concerns and improve transaction efficiency, but its subsequent division further demonstrates the ongoing evolution within the cryptocurrency space.

As of 2017, there was an issue with the speed of transactions on the bitcoin blockchain. The small block size of 1 MB was insufficient due to the increasing popularity and technological advancements in the cryptocurrency. This resulted in a significant decrease in transaction speed, with some taking several hours or even days instead of the usual 10 minutes. Developers proposed two solutions to address this problem:

1. Removing the restriction and creating an "unlimited bitcoin." However, concerns were raised about overloading the system and centralizing control, as well as potential difficulties for smaller miners to adapt to the new mining conditions.
2. Utilizing SegWit technology to remove some information from the blockchain, thus improving memory usage and transaction speed.

Eventually, developers settled on a compromise and implemented the SegWit2x protocol, expanding the block size to 2 MB. However, there were dissatisfied individuals who decided to reject this protocol and create blocks of 8 MB, sticking with the original blockchain structure. This led to the emergence of a new cryptocurrency called Bitcoin Cash (BCH), which was created on August 1, 2017.

The differences between the classic bitcoin and BCH are as follows:

- Block size: Bitcoin has a 2 MB block size, while Bitcoin Cash has 8 MB.
- Blockchain complexity: BCH experiences rapid changes in indicators, with hashrate growth and complexity being interdependent.
- BCH has not activated SegWit and does not plan to do so.
- Bitcoin has a replace-by-fee function, whereas BCH is protected from "replay" attacks.
- The Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm in BCH is more sophisticated, with faster adjustment of indicators.
- Bitcoin Cash offers enhanced protection for transactions, preventing repetition or erasure.
- BCH introduces updated transaction types, allowing specific payment amounts, and additional operations that enhance wallet security.
- In terms of capitalization and exchange rate, classic bitcoin holds the top position, while BCH ranks 26th as of December 26, 2022.

Bitcoin Cash is not as widely supported and popular as the original bitcoin, with many wallets not yet accommodating it. For instance, the Swapster crypto wallet supports standard bitcoin and six other popular currencies but does not include Bitcoin Cash. Nevertheless, there are possibilities for future adoption and growth for BCH.