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After spending some time at Publish0x, I learned that some members here are also posting their work at READ.CASH and noise.cash. These are also sites that empower members to share their thoughts and feelings with the world and monetize their writings with Bitcoin Cash. I didn't have the faintest idea about Bitcoin Cash prior to encountering read.cash and noise.cash, so I thought I would find out more about it before I devote time to post on these two sites.
Here is what I found out. A special shoutout to 99Bitcoins for their informative video.
- Bitcoin Cash is a fork of Bitcoin, which simply means that it is an alternate version of BTC. To expound on this further, Bitcoin Cash is a hard fork, which means that a split occurred in the Bitcoin network because not all users agreed with the suggested changes to the Bitcoin protocol. Hence, users who concur with these changes will have to run an alternate software to utilize Bitcoin Cash as it is not compatible with the original Bitcoin.
- In other words, Bitcoin Cash was a brand new coin that was launched in August 1, 2017. So this year marks its 4th anniversary in the crypto space.
- As you may know, an area of growth for Bitcoin is its scalability. It processes a mere 7 transactions per second - a measly figure when compared to Visa which can process up to 65,000 transactions per second during peak periods. Coupled with slowing down transaction speeds, this also led to significant transaction fees as some users with deeper pockets were willing to pay premium fees in order to jump the queue and have their transaction confirmed faster. Indeed, Bitcoin's (lack of) scalability was the reason why the Lightning Network was created as a means of upscaling Bitcoin's capacity, a topic that I covered here. Bitcoin Cash was another solution designed to enhance Bitcoin's scalability.
- This goes to say that Bitcoin Cash cannot be used on the Lightning Network.
- While the Lightning Network facilitates micropayments so that these small transactions do not end up cluttering the main blockchain, the proponents of Bitcoin launched a solution that was the exact opposite of the Lightning Network. What they did then was to increase the block size to 8mb, which meant that the number of confirmed transactions per second would increase accordingly by 8 times. It is akin to an ant colony building more and more underground tunnels so as to facilitate movement of its inhabitants.
- Subsequently, the block size of Bitcoin Cash has been increased to 32mb.
- Bitcoin Cash itself went through a fork, namely Bitcoin ABC and Bitcoin SV! But that's an article for another time.
My thoughts on Bitcoin Cash:
- Bitcoin has the first mover advantage among all cryptocurrencies as it stirs up people's passions like no other crypto. I think Bitcoin Cash is a testament of mankind's ingenuity as it showcases how we are determined to problem-solve and remove all obstacles when we deem that something is worth pursuing.
- However, given that ESG (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance) investments are gaining traction nowadays, particularly among the younger generations, one has to pause and reflect on whether Bitcoin Cash will increase burden on our environment through the substantial rise in the computational power required. I wonder if more environmentally-conscious youths will fully embrace Bitcoin Cash since it appears to be an energy-intensive process.
Conclusion:
I am still undecided on whether I should join read.cash and noise.cash because I want to learn more about Bitcoin Cash's energy requirements first. Is anyone out there willing to enlighten me on this issue?
Photo by David McBee from Pexels
