Low Fees and Quick Transactions - An Intro To Bitcoin Cash!!
The last few days have been wild for cryptocurrency, and King Bitcoin keeps breaking one all time high after another. The good news is that Bitcoin breaking ATHs generates interest and media publicity that draws new users to crypto. Although Bitcoin might be one one of the most well known cryptocurrencies (and the first crypto that many people hear of), I also believe that Bitcoin Cash has a number of interesting features that make it a great introductory or "starter-crypto" for onboarding new users and getting them started.
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What is Bitcoin?
Since this article is designed for beginners, I want to do an extremely brief recap of what Bitcoin is and why it matters. Bitcoin is a decentralized, peer-to-peer, electronic currency that can be sent anywhere in the world without the permission of governments, central banks, or other financial intermediaries. As the first cryptocurrency that was developed, Bitcoin gained a huge following, has wide name recognition, and is currently the most valuable cryptocurrency by market cap.
At this point, you may be wondering, “ if Bitcoin is such a great cryptocurrency, then why do we need other cryptocurrencies?” The answer to this question is that different cryptocurrencies have built off the basic example of Bitcoin and added or removed certain features that are designed to make them more useful for specific purposes. For example, Bitcoin Cash, which is based on Bitcoin, made several changes that are intended to make it more user-friendly for frequent, daily purchases...hence the “Cash” terminology.
What is Bitcoin Cash?
For those of you who may not know about Bitcoin Cash, the first question that you may be wondering is ”‘What is Bitcoin Cash?” The short answer is that Bitcoin cash can do most everything that Bitcoin can do. In fact, Bitcoin Cash is a descendant of the original Bitcoin and borrows many of the same features. For example, both Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin (BTC) are created by a decentralized mining process that prevents government inflation of the money supply. Both of these cryptocurrencies can be sent anywhere in the world as a peer-to-peer form of payment. Both have a finite cap of 21 million coins.....the similarities go on and on.
Although Bitcoin cash inherited much of its underlying philosophy and programming from the original Bitcoin, there are two key features that I believe make it more well-suited to frequent transactions and introducing people to cryptocurrency.
The first major difference is that Bitcoin Cash has an extremely low transaction fee. At the time of writing, the transaction fee for an average Bitcoin transaction is about $5.30 USD while the BCH transaction fee is about 1/100 th of a USD. I believe the significantly lower transaction fee makes Bitcoin cash much more well suited for frequent, small purchases. Can you imagine buying a coffee for $5 with traditional Bitcoin and paying a $5 transaction fee? In that scenario, the transaction fee would be almost the same as the total purchase price of the product. That's not convenient at all!
By contrast, the transaction fee with Bitcoin cash is so low that not only can you buy a coffee, you can send micropayments as tips. For example, the newly released Bitcoin Cash based website noise.cash allows users to send micro-tips as low as .01 USD. This is something that simply wouldn't be possible with traditional Bitcoin or even Ethereum as the transaction fees would be many times higher than the actual value sent.
The second major difference between Bitcoin and Bitcoin cash is that because Bitcoin Cash has such a large block size, it is almost guaranteed that your transaction will be picked up and included in the next block. With traditional BTC, you may wait several hours or days for your transaction to be picked up. Thus, although both Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash both have a 10-minute block time, a transaction with Bitcoin Cash will most likely settle far before a transaction from traditional Bitcoin.
I think that hands-on experience and learning by doing are two of the best ways for helping beginners get started in cryptocurrency. Ethereum and traditional Bitcoin are absolutely fantastic cryptocurrencies, but their transaction fees and high cost make them more costly to play around with for beginners. With Bitcoin Cash, I can easily send a few cents worth of value to a new crypto-currency user, and they can practice sending this to other people without having to worry about losing a significant amount of money if they send some crypto to the wrong address or if they underbid for an ETH gas fee. It's even possible to create your own SLP token with just a few cents of Bitcoin Cash - again, that's just one more way that BCH does a good job of giving beginners the ability to experiment and learn about crypto without breaking the bank.
Other Benefits
Additionally, having strong community support and encouragement is essential for onboarding new cryptocurrency users, and I have found BCH to be a strong, supportive community. Perhaps most importantly, a new user's first steps into cryptocurrency should be free. What I mean by this is that users who aren't completely sure about cryptocurrency may be worried about losing their funds or being hacked or something like that. Allowing users to earn a little bit of free cryptocurrency maybe the little push that they need to get started and the whole crypto ecosystem.
I know from first-hand experience that I became interested in cryptocurrency after learning that I could receive free cryptocurrency through the BRAVE browser. Had it not been for that small initial push, I may never have ventured into the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Therefore, I think that Bitcoin Cash based sites like read.cash and noise.cash are incredible because they give new users the ability to earn a bit of crypto simply for writing blog posts or tweets without having to put any of their own money on the line.
True, there are other sites such as PUBLISH0X and Uptrennd that allow users to earn other forms of cryptocurrency. However, as those sites use ERC-20 (Ethereum) based tokens, it costs the admin team a significant amount of money to send the payouts which means that a new user will have to wait a while before receiving their first crypto. Although I wholeheartedly recommend sites like Publish0x and Uptrennd, for someone who is just getting started in crypto, it can be very encouraging to get their first payments almost instantly from a site like noise.cash.
Summary
In summary, there are many different cryptocurrencies each with its own unique advantage. This article is in no way intended to claim that Bitcoin Cash is the best cryptocurrency, but rather to show that Bitcoin cash does have several specific advantages that may be helpful and useful to people who are learning about cryptocurrency for the first time. Specifically, the low transaction fees enable newbies to practice sending, receiving, and earning cryptocurrency without having to worry that they are going to make a mistake and lose a large amount of money.
A note about other coins
Undoubtedly, many other cryptocurrencies are designed to function as a quick, easy method of payment. Dash and Nano specifically come to mind, and although they both offer unique advantages, I chose to focus on Bitcon Cash for a few reasons. First, it has name recognition due to its lineage that is derived from Bitcoin. In my opinion, it is easier to explain to a beginner how some updates were made to a coin they know and trust (Bitcoin) than trying to explain a totally new coin that they have never heard of and may not trust. Second, Bitcoin Cash is currently in the Top 10 cryptos while DASH and Nano are ranked 40 and 56 respectively. While ranking does not necessarily mean one coin is better or worse than another, the rankings may be helpful for reassuring a beginner that a coin is legitimate.
Cardano (ADA) Spikes 83% as Bitcoin Tops $39.6k, is ETH/USD Cheap?
- Cardano price rallies 83%
- Bitcoin price tops $40k
- Ethereum firm above $1k, set for $10k?
Trending News: Bitcoin aims for $40k, Ethereum is undervalued while Cardano (ADA) adds 83%
Few metrics are at a new all-time high as of today’s writing.
The Bitcoin price, needless to say, is one of them. BTC/USD prices rallied to over $39k, breaking two levels adding to last week’s $8k bull bar. If anything, the coin—and the network, is on the verge of evolving from being a peer-to-peer cash system to a parabolic cash system.
A few weeks after breaking $20k, the coin’s price may not only double but even rise to $41k. The $20k level was a psychological mark, identified by technical analysts for being a climactic high of the ICO-induced pump of 2017.
Even at $10k, Ethereum will be undervalued
Like Bitcoin, Ethereum follows closely behind.
By maintaining its positive correlation with the digital gold, the world’s computer is also less than $200 away from reaching its all-time highs of around $1.4k. Behind Ethereum’s rally is the widespread belief by the investment community that ETH is under-valued.
At spot rates, the coin could, after all, be undervalued with room for more upsides. With the ETH/USD price above $1k, some analysts, including Anthony Sassano, are adamant that prices can double to $2k.
However, to Sassano, $2k is still low. He predicts ETH prices to reach $10k. Even at this point, he explains,prices would be low because of what lies ahead in code development.
The Cardano (ADA) Roar
Mirroring Ethereum’s success is the exponential jump of Cardano. ADA prices have nearly doubled after breaking above $0.16 in November.
Taking charge of Cardano’s development is Charles Hoskinson, who is confident of his project’s prospects.
From a decentralization and efficiency point of view, Cardano will be superior to Bitcoin and Ethereum. Interestingly, Cardano is still under development with plans to activate Goguen underway. Several Hard Fork Combinators are now active in preparation.
For this, the IOHK—the development wing of Cardano led by Charles, re-launched Project Catalyst with a better purse of $500k to fund dApps planning to launch in Cardano.
Other noteworthy performers include Maker (MKR) and Nano, whose prices are, on average, upwards of 80 percent in the last week of trading.
Cardano Price Prediction
Of the top-10 projects, the ADA/USD fundamentals are firmer, at least in the medium term.
Factoring in Goguen, the path of least resistance for ADA is northwards. According to trackers, the ADA/USD price is up 83 percent in the last week of trading, adding seven percent on the last day.
Trading volumes are since contracted.
However, the coin is trading within a bullish breakout pattern versus the greenback. Following the surge past July 2020’s high of $0.16, the retest from the 50 percent retracement level of the two-year consolidation from 2018 fed bulls.
With an uptick in trading volumes in the past few weeks, the next target is the 2.68 percent Fibonacci extension level anchoring on the 2-year range at $0.40 and later, $0.54, the 3.68 level.
As long as prices range inside this week’s bull bar—even in subsequent sessions, every low above $0.20 can be a loading point for $0.36 (this week’s highs), $0.40, and $0.54, respectively, as aforementioned.
Bitcoin to $200k Just When More BTC are Being Tokenized, Will Joe Biden Prop Crypto?
Surging prices, anticipation, and steady coin interest round out today’s headlines.
Former Facebook Executive Says Bitcoin Price will eventually reach $200k
Chamath Palihapitiya, the chairman of Virgin Galactic and the CEO of Social Capital, hasn’t stopped talking about Bitcoin since 2011.
Then, the digital asset was trading in cents. In a recent interview with CNBC’s Halftime Report, Chamath pointed out Bitcoin’s tailwinds, saying they are strong. Consequently, the digital asset can easily soar five-fold from the spot rates to $200k.
He didn’t give a time frame. However, he says, together with Tesla, the Bitcoin network is one of the most potent and could resolve the paint point currently being experienced in the global financial system.
In his view, faith in world leaders and institutions is dissipating. Bitcoin is emerging as an uncorrelated hedge that holders have direct control of.
Joe Biden is Officially President-Elect, a Bitcoin Pump?
Chaos in Congress follows the confirmation of Joe Biden as the official President-Elect taking over from Donald Trump.
As Joe Biden is set to take over—he has control of both houses of Congress and the White House making it easy for him to implement his legislative agenda and his campaign promises. Because of this, the investment community expects the expansion of the United States’ fiscal support and stimulus packages.
Consequently, more money will flow, risking to push inflation higher. Although the economy might recover faster, expectations of higher inflation could prop Bitcoin prices in the long-term.
More Bitcoin Flowing to Ethereum
Data reveals that over $5 billion worth of Bitcoin (over 136k BTC) has been tokenized and exist in Ethereum being utilized for DeFi.
As of writing, open finance protocol manages over $22.3 billion of assets just when the ETH price is $200 shy from its all-time high of $1.4k.
The pace at which BTC flows to Ethereum shows the increasing utility of Ethereum and even the possibility of the platform being used to scale Bitcoin.
Click here to read full post: https://crypto-current.co/bitcoin-200k-btc-being-tokenized-joe-biden-prop-crypto/
Chart Courtesy of Trading View
Disclosure: Opinions Expressed Are Not Investment Advice. Do Your Research.
Click here to read full post: https://crypto-current.co/cardano-ada-spikes-83-bitcoin-tops-39-6k-eth-usd/
As always, thanks for reading!
References
https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-sets-new-all-time-high-above-34-7k-after-uneven-start-to-the-week
https://read.cash/
https://www.coingecko.com/en
Image Credits
https://unsplash.com/photos/Q1p7bh3SHj8
https://www.bitcoincash.org/images/media-kit/12-bitcoin-cash-square-crop-medium.png
