Bitcoin cash (BCH) is undergoing a period of hardcore controversy.
Bitcoin Cash Is At the Center of Major Change
Bitcoin cash is the famed result of a bitcoin hard fork that occurred in late 2017. Bitcoin (BTC) is the number one cryptocurrency by market cap and has given birth to a few digital kids along the way. BCH is among the first, and the currency has moved through the ranks to garner the number four spot on the list of industry’s top-performing cryptocurrencies.
During its peak, the asset was trading for well above the $3,000 range, but ultimately crashed and lost more than 90 percent of its value during the embarrassment that was 2018. Several currencies during this period fell dramatically in price, with bitcoin losing more than 70 percent of its value over a period of approximately 11 months and dropping into the mid-$3,000 range.
At the time of writing, bitcoin cash is trading for a little over $370 per unit.
Now, bitcoin cash is at the center of another controversial move. The currency’s largest mining pool is proposing a new tax that would require miners of large blocks give up even more of their digital rewards in order to provide the funds necessary for future development. Naturally, this hasn’t swayed well with several members of the BCH community, and an anonymous group of individuals are trying to get it shut down before it ever comes to fruition.
There are many problems with this plan, perhaps the biggest being that it goes against the decentralized nature of bitcoin and its little brother. BCH works along the same lines as its daddy bitcoin. The currency is largely decentralized and is not issued through a single source. The idea that miners would now have to pay a large tax to fund its future goes against everything it stands for.
This is the equivalent of people paying income taxes or additional taxes each year as a means of supporting their country’s infrastructure, banking industry and general economy. While this is to be expected, cryptocurrency does not adhere to the same rules as traditional financial institutions, so why would anyone recommend treating it as such?
The notion of taxing miners would potentially lead to a much more centralized position for BCH, and who’s to say that other cryptocurrencies and their blockchains wouldn’t follow suit after that?
A Tax Is Not the Answer
The tax proposal comes by way of a company called BTC.top, which is composed of several Chinese crypto miners. They want to issue the tax over a period of six months and garner as much as $6 million for the future development of BCH.
A group of separate miners who disagree with the proposal are now threatening to create a completely separate chain granted the company does not reconsider its plans by mid-May.
