Born August 1, 2017, Bitcoin Cash is to its proponents what Bitcoin ought to be. As of now, it features 8MB blocks as opposed to one or two. Its transaction time is just under a minute and a half per block, and its fees are low, about seven cents per transaction. However, Bitcoin Cash did not take over Bitcoin after the fork. Let’s look at a few reasons why.
1. Segwit worked
Litecoin’s SegWit activation led to adoption and drove prices higher. Perhaps some traders took wind of this and held Bitcoin despite some negative sentiment.
2. Access and adoption wasn’t wide
Not everyone who knew about the fork took advantage of it. Some kept their coins on Coinbase or other online wallets or exchanges that did not immediately divvy up a fork dividend.
3. Retailers weren’t ready
The old credo, “Build it and they will come” did not apply in this case. Retailers and restaurants that accepted Bitcoin just weren’t there, leaving Bitcoin Cash without the killer app it could have used.
4. Name recognition
When it comes to cryptocurrencies, anything new comes with both speculation and, perhaps, a bit of paranoia. No one knew what would happen in regards to either coin after the fork. But SegWit had proven to work with Litecoin. And the market loves predictability, especially when it comes to an event such as the integration of optimizing software.
5. No easily recognizable utility or network
The chant for bigger blocks has been intensifying to a crescendo for the past couple of years, and SegWit proponents’ negation of this has kept pace. The lay user of bitcoin never really understood what the fight was truly about, and can hardly tell the difference between the two approaches.
Bitcoin is expecting another fork next month. However, after the first fork on August 1, speculators and traders learned that staying along for the ride with Bitcoin for the forked coin can prove profitable. This is especially the case if they can ride the storm for both coins.
There has been palpable fear in the market as a lot of altcoins saw their values slowly decline as traders jumped ship to bitcoin. Who can blame them? Bitcoin is now cruising past five thousand and nearing six as of the time of writing. In the meantime, we watched altcoins suffer this past week. Bitcoin Cash has caught itself in a balancing act, as its supporters have to maintain a code that will lead to profitability for miners in order to ensure the long-term success of the cryptocurrency.
