According to data from Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency trading platform BitMEX, the total cost of the ongoing ‘hash rate war’ affecting Bitcoin Cash already reached $11.8 million last Wednesday. New data has not been published yet, but it is very likely that the losses have passed $12 million by today.
Bitcoin Cash ABC, backed by Jihan Wu and Roger Ver, is trying to hold off the Craig Wright-backed Bitcoin Cash SV, in the battle over the Bitcoin Cash name. However, as supporters of each token funnel resources into the fight, significant losses are beginning to rack up.
Two sides of the Bitcoin Cash community continue to face off, but the below tweets show the war is proving far from cheap for either party:
Hash war estimated costs live update
Combined totals:
* Estimated leasing fees: $11.8m
* Combined gross losses: $8.9m
Even assuming cheap energy costs, SV miners have a negative gross margin of 441% & $2.2m of gross losses. pic.twitter.com/ALNMzg5Mgu
— BITMEX Research (@BitMEXResearch) November 21, 2018
Important to note: the above calculations were based on the “assuming cheap electricity costs” of $0.05 per kilowatt hour. This means the losses can be even higher than the data from BitMEX is currently showing.
Mining costs, cost of leasing extra hash power, and plummeting crypto prices have both sides firmly in the red, per BitMex Research. Calculated off the assumed energy costs, ABC miners have lost $1.2 million so far, and SV $2.1 million. Factoring hardware leasing into it, the two sides have a combined gross loss of $8.9 million.
With that, it is fair to say that the ‘hash war’ has done a lot of harm to the liquidity of both parties. Luckily, in a post on Friday, Bitcoin Cash SV supporter Calvin Ayre appeared to want to end the war in order to focus on what fellow supporter Craig Wright termed “business applications.”
CoinGeek now feels there is no point in negotiating. If ABC puts replay protection in to permanently split the chains we will ensure that nobody bothers them again. They can keep BCH as BSV is not the original Bitcoin Cash its the original Bitcoin.
— Calvin Ayre (@CalvinAyre) November 23, 2018
