Difference between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash

By Chetna Phour

Bitcoin is a revolutionary ledger recording technology which made the ledger far more challenging to manipulate. Since the inception of Bitcoin, there have been questions surrounding its ability to scale effectively. Initially, when Bitcoin launched, there were only a few enthusiasts who were excited about the new currency, but soon people realized the potential of Bitcoin, and it became a popular cryptocurrency. With the increasing popularity, numbers of Bitcoin miners and investors grew exponentially.

Though it is a great technology, the main problem with Bitcoin is that the transaction speed of Bitcoin is very slow at around seven transactions per second. If we compare other modes of payment, Visa processes 24,00 transactions per second. In 2017, at the time of crypto boom, it became clear that there are too many transactions to handle and with this much of seed, it is impossible to handle too many transactions, so there is a requirement of reforms to scale the cryptocurrency further. To resolve the issue in August 2017 Bitcoin split using Hard Fork. Check out What is Hard Fork? The new version of Bitcoin is called Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has the same codebase, but the block size limit of Bitcoin Cash is 8Mb. Because of the increased limit, Bitcoin Cash ca process around two million transactions per day. In this article, we are going to tell the Difference between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.

Difference between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is an improved version of Bitcoin (BTC). There are certain difference and similarities between both the cryptocurrencies. Let’s check out the differences

Large Block Size

The block size limit of Bitcoin Cash is 8MB while the block size limit of Bitcoin is 2MB. As a result, more transaction can be performed.

Cheaper Fee

The transaction fee of Bitcoin Cash is much lower than Bitcoin.

Mining Pools

Bitcoin has lots of mining pools, and no one is strong enough to have a majority of 51% to rule all the miners. In contrast, Bitcoin Cash is highly centralized. Currently, there are three mining pools for Bitcoin Cash which collectively makes more than 51%. It can be a dangerous situation because the future of the Bitcoin Cash becomes too reliant on these major miners.

Replay and Wipeout Protection

The hash algorithm used by Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash is different, so the replay between the two blockchains is not possible.

On Chain Scalability

The technology used by Bitcoin Cash allows an increase in the number of blocks. Currently, the block limit for Bitcoin Cash is 8MB, and this limit can be increased further.

Emergency Difficulty Adjustments (EDA)

The new algorithm which is used in Blockchain Cash provides additional stability to the cryptocurrency. The new algorithms normal chain work in case of dramatic changes in the number of miners.

New Transaction Signature

Bitcoin Cash has a different transaction signature than Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Cash is aware of its weaknesses, so the developers tried to bridge these gaps and made a new cryptocurrency which is faster than Bitcoin.  Though Bitcoin Cash is an improved version of Bitcoin but Bitcoin offer greater security and stability as there are more mining support and infrastructure behind the top cryptocurrency. If you want to know more about Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, read our previous posts What Is Bitcoin? and What is BITCOIN Cash?