The upcoming hard fork for the Bitcoin BCH network has produced a fervor. It’s one of the hottest topics on social media sites such as Reddit and Twitter with a persistence divide between those that support Bitcoin SV—and the idea that cryptocurrency needs to be seen as currency—and Bitcoin ABC, which is more driven to completely alter the work that has thus far gone into creating a viable digital currency. As it stands now, just three days ahead of the network upgrade, more miners are showing support for Bitcoin SV.
Bitcoin SV is now supported by 66% of Bitcoin BCH miners, according to data found on Coin Dance. This is a good sign, as it shows that miners understand that Bitcoin SV will prevent the blockchain from implementing changes that do nothing to enhance the network. Certain developers, and even some mining companies such as Bitmain, appear to be willing to use Bitcoin BCH as their personal sandbox, undermining the importance of cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin ABC is only supported by around 32% of miners, according to the same data. Bitcoin Unlimited—only versions 1.5 and newer—will follow Bitcoin ABC; all older versions won’t be compatible with either side following the fork.
One of the most contentious upgrades proposed by the likes of Bitmain’s Jihan Wu and other like-minded individuals would be the OP_CODE OP_CHECKDATASIG, or DSV. It has already been shown to provide no utility to the network and could actually lead to the introduction of criminalization of the Bitcoin BCH blockchain.
Another highly contested project is the canonical transaction ordering rule (CTOR). CTOR would completely change how transactions how transactions are sorted and—just like DSV—does not do anything to progress the blockchain. Following multiple requests, CTOR’s developers have yet to provide a single example of why CTOR needs to be introduced. It only serves as another example of how certain developers want to continue to unnecessarily “tinker” with the blockchain.
Hard fork, discord and disagreements aside, Bitcoin BCH is still a better option than Bitcoin Core (BTC), and it will continue to be so following the hard fork. It is a blockchain that is more efficient and which offers cheaper transactions than BTC. According to data available from Coin Dance, BCH transactions are 10 times cheaper than are BTC transactions.
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