Get the weekly summary of crypto market analysis, news, and forecasts! This Week’s Summary The crypto market ends the week at a total market capitalization of $2,17 trillion. Bitcoin continues to trade at around $62,300. Ethereum experiences no changes and stagnates at around $2,400. XRP is down by 2%, Solana by 1%, and Dogecoin by 3%. Almost all altcoins are trading in the red, with very few exceptions. The DeFi sector decreased the total value of protocols (TVL) to around…
The Real Bitcoin – A Beginner’s Guide to Avoiding Confusion Surrounding Bitcoin
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Cryptocurrency started with Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a decentralized payment mechanism that began in 2008. This first-ever decentralized digital currency base was backed by nothing but the Bitcoin network participants’ mutual trust.
The Bitcoin protocol was designed to be free from tampering with the source code. Thus, no single participant can act against the network, nor can he deny the user to the network in any way. This made Bitcoin the first in a series of ‘Borderless transparent mutual censorship-resistant immutable’ mediums of exchange.
After Bitcoin, it didn’t take long for other projects to develop, with the primary purpose of continuing what Bitcoin started. Finally, however, some wanted to replace BTC altogether. By replacing, it doesn’t mean taking Bitcoin and throwing it away, but instead starting something new and claiming the newly specifically created project as being the “original Bitcoin.”
Bitcoin forks have been a matter of much debate in the cryptocurrency sphere. The consensus is mandatory for forks to be resolved and allow continuous functioning validly. A fork without consensus is what leads to a permanent split.
But Wait, what is a Fork?
Forks can be categorized in two ways: hard and soft. Both hard and soft fork types create two different versions of the software. However, a hard fork mainly differentiates them because it is meant to make two incompatible blockchains/tokens. In contrast, a soft fork creates two compatible software versions and tokens.
A hard fork is a non-backward compatible upgrade to an existing blockchain. This means that all the network nodes on the Bitcoin blockchain must either comply with the fork and update their protocol software or continue with the same outdated protocol by forming another separate Blockchain entity.
Up to this date, some of the most famous and relevant hard forks are Bitcoin vs. Bitcoin Cash hard fork, Ethereum vs. Ethereum Classic hard fork, etc.
What sets Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash apart from other hard forks is that these are internally developed by the network participants and implemented with the consensus of members choosing their sides based on their beliefs. Thus, if a part of the users doesn’t agree with the change, the result may be two different versions of the identical initial blockchain running concurrently.
The Street Fight for “The Real Bitcoin”
Bitcoin Cash’s Argument
Bitcoin Cash is a cryptocurrency created in August 2017 from a fork of Bitcoin. Bitcoin Cash increases the size of blocks, allowing more transactions to be processed. The cryptocurrency underwent another fork in November 2018 and split into Bitcoin Cash ABC and Bitcoin Cash SV (Satoshi Vision). Bitcoin Cash is referred to as Bitcoin Cash because it uses the original Bitcoin Cash client.
The critical difference between BTC and BCH is the block size. The Bitcoin block size is limited to 1 MB, while Bitcoin Cash offers a block size of 8 MB, which was later upgraded to 32 MB. In addition, a Bitcoin block holds about 2500 transactions, whereas, for the first BCH blocks, this figure reached 7000. Thus, the prospects of Bitcoin Cash in terms of scalability initially looked much better.
However, most Bitcoin infrastructure (wallets, payment services, etc.) does not support Bitcoin Cash and considers it just another altcoin, not a “new Bitcoin.” This means that its use is limited to speculation on stock exchanges.
Since its inception, Bitcoin Cash has been known partly under the umbrella of Roger Ver to imply tactics that suggest it is the ‘original Bitcoin.’ Some of the tactics Bitcoin Cash employs to obtain the status of being the “first Bitcoin” are naming their website “bitcoin.com,” using the Reddit channel r/BTC, and so on. This clearly shows how hard Bitcoin Cash is trying to confuse and possibly attract and convince more users about the legitimacy of the large number of “Bitcoins” out there.
Evolution of Craig Wright’s Vision
Bitcoin SV is a fork of the already existing fork, Bitcoin Cash. The differences related to the controversial block size topic between Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV have increased to the extent of separating the two distinct approaches. Since splitting, Bitcoin SV has increased Bitcoin Cash’s existing block size from 32 MB to 128 MB. There has been absolute chaos since the huge block size and how it might increase mining costs and affect scaling.
Craig Wright is a Research and Computer Scientist who has repeatedly claimed that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous person who created the Bitcoin protocol. These claims are widely regarded as a possible hoax by most of the Blockchain community in general, partly because, other than statements and claims, Craig has never been able to support his views with facts and proof.
A faction within the Bitcoin Cash community, led by Craig Wright and Calvin Ayre, completely disagreed with these proposed technical updates. They argued that the proposed upgrades weren’t secure and would corrupt Bitcoin’s original vision as “digital cash” by allowing noncash transactions. As a result, this action launched a competing version of the protocol with a higher block size limit of 128 MB on the 15th of November of 2018, leading to a contentious hard fork that split the chain into Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV.
| Bitcoin | Bitcoin Cash | Bitcoin SV | |
| Block No | Is the original protocol
Implementation was done by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto with the help of fellow CyberPunk Hal Finney. |
Forked off Bitcoin from Block 478558
The fork was done due to internal differences arising between developers about the block size. Proponents of Bitcoin Cash, headed by Roger Ver, |
Forked off Bitcoin Cash from Block 566766 |
| Current Market Price
December 2019 |
$7509
Bitcoin has seen a tremendous fluctuation in the past week, with highs of $8600 and lows touching $6800 |
$218
Bitcoin Cash has been nothing but a downfall ever since its splitting. Interestingly, the fall is persistent despite recent crucial internal developments. |
$89
Not much can be commented on the history of Bitcoin SV, as it is still nascent. |
| Network Hash Rate | 92,346,897 TH/s
The hash rate has seen an uptrend since the start of the year. Interestingly, Bitcoin recently touched an all-time hash rate high, much further than the late 2017 bull score. |
Approx. 6600 PH/s
Bitcoin Cash’s hash rate has recently stabilized at mid-2000 after seeing a massive drop since the bitcoin SV split. |
Approx 1.1 EH/s
After dropping from its initial high of 5 EH/s, a decrease in attention and interest has led to a 90% downfall in the network hash rate. |
| Fee Structure | Current Daily Avg. Fee: $1.2
Bitcoin’s fees per transaction are known to be the most volatile in the business. The fees have been known to correlate with the increase in transactions. |
Current Daily Avg. Fee: 0.0004
Keeping up with its promise, Bitcoin Cash has consistently supported transactions at a nominal rate. |
Current Daily Avg. Fee: $0.0002
Since most of the idea has been inspired by its parent fork, Bitcoin Cash, and owing to its inferior unit price, the transactions are being propagated and 50% of its fee. |
| Block Size | Supports 1MB per block
Usually is full due to high demand and low transaction per block count. |
Supports 32 MB | Supports unto 128 MB
Much must be researched about the effects of the large block and the relative cost to mine, also keeping it feasible enough for technology to catch up |
| Avg. Transaction/per day | 300,000 per day
Owing to high demand, the daily transactions usually stay within the limit until further block size increases are made. |
30,000 per day
Bitcoin Cash saw highs of 1 million transactions back in January 2019 but has since then seen a decrease in daily users |
200,000 per day
SV has periodically touched north of 2 million daily transactions but has stabilized the currency average. |
How to Avoid all the Confusion?
Sometimes, people think that ‘realness” comes from price reflection. This means that the highest valued iteration is the most widely supported one, the ‘real’ bitcoin. To help our readers distinguish the different Bitcoin-named coins, below is a list of all the community’s various factions.
Note: There are probably over 100 coins with the Bitcoin name. However, so far, only Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV have claimed they are the real Bitcoin.
| Bitcoin | Bitcoin Cash | Bitcoin SV | |
| Website | Bitcoin.org | Bitcoin.com | Bitcoinsv.io |
| Pushed By | Bitcoin Core | Roger Ver | Craig Wright |
| Reddit Handle | r/bitcoin | r/BTC | r/Bitcoinsv |
| GitHub Repository | https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin | https://github.com/zquestz/bitcoincash | NA |
| Major Pools | – AntPool
– Slush Pool – BTC.com |
– Bitcoin.com
– BTC.com – AntPool |
– viatc.com
– prohashing.com |
There are loads of sneaky and shady tactics employed by many cryptocurrencies there. To underline our discussed example, Bitcoin Cash named their website “bitcoin.com,” used the Reddit channel r/BTC, etc. This clearly shows how hard Bitcoin Cash and cryptocurrencies came after forks were trying to confuse and possibly manipulate users about the legitimacy of the vast number of “Bitcoins” out there.
In our opinion, the easiest way to navigate through the multitude of Bitcoin names is to use the coin’s symbol: BTC, to ignore the rest of the “Bitcoin” findings.
Btc
Bitcoin
$62.547
price
price
0.84959%
price change
I hoped this article enlightened and was explicit to anyone overwhelmed by looking at different types of ‘Bitcoin’ out there. We hope that any decision you take henceforth will be an informed one rather than one that is forced upon you.
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Written by
Sudarshan M
@Sum
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