In what may well have been the most watched cryptocurrency event of 2018, Bitcoin Cash two weeks ago “hard forked” (split) into two different coins. The “big block” project that itself forked away from the Bitcoin blockchain in August 2017 fragmented into “Bitcoin Cash ABC” (BCHABC) and “Bitcoin Cash SV” (BCHSV).
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In this third and final overview: the main takeaways and latest developments of the second week since the Bitcoin Cash split.
Hash War Over
The Bitcoin Cash split drew as much attention as it did in part because Bitcoin SV proponents had announced a “hash war.” Where previous “coin splits” were relatively peaceful — both sides of the respective disputes went their own way — nChain chief scientist and Bitcoin SV frontman Craig Steven Wright threatened that miners would 51% attack a potential Bitcoin Cash ABC chain out of existence.
But as the coin forked and the world watched, nothing irregular happened. Possibly because Bitcoin Cash ABC proponents brought in additional hash power to secure their chain, no 51% attack took place.
One day after the split, Wright said[2] Bitcoin Cash SV miners would instead maintain an “endurance attack.” If and when more miners left the Bitcoin Cash ABC network, the 51% attack(s) would commence. For well over a week, both chains did attract more hash power than their respective block rewards warranted, suggesting that miners were losing millions of dollars[3] in a seemingly pointless “hash power race.”
However, by the beginning of this week — some 10 days after the split — CoinGeek published a press release[4] announcing support for a permanent split. As the publication is owned by online gambling tycoon and major Bitcoin SV miner Calvin Ayre, this declaration was considered an “official” end
