Bitcoin Cash hardfork split into two backwardly incompatible chains
On Sunday, November 15, in the network of the sixth most capitalized cryptovoltaic Bitcoin Cash held a planned hardfork. However, the largest client of Bitcoin Cash ABC until recently did not get the support of the community, and the Bitcoin Cash Blockchain was divided into two backwardly incompatible chains.
The update was scheduled for 12:00 UTC, but its activation was delayed by almost two hours. It happened at 14:13 UTC on block 661,447, which was the last joint block for Bitcoin Cash ABC and BCHN.
Four minutes later, Antpool found a block 661,448, which already exclusively supports BCHN. The next block in the circuit of Bitcoin Cаsh ABC remained undiscovered.
Futures markets also support BCHN as the dominant chain after November 15. Before hardfork, BCHN contracts were traded at 0.94 BCH, BCHA – 0.06 BCH.
In anticipation of hardfork, the price of Bitcoin Cash was experiencing increased volatility, falling $260 to $245 three blocks before the activation of the update and returning to levels above $250 just before the event. In addition, there were delays in the generation of new blocks – at some point, the pause was almost an hour.
Recall that the leading developer of Bitcoin Cash ABC Amory Seshe announced the network update in August this year. To date, all the nodes of the network, in order not to remain in an alternative chain, had to update their software, otherwise they will remain.
The update introduces a new complexity recalculation algorithm called ASERT. It is expected that together with it, the problem of delaying the formation of new blocks will disappear.
Another innovation of Bitcoin Cash ABC is the Coinbase Rule feature, which rejects all blocks that do not contribute to the Bitcoin Cash development fund. It is this aspect that caused the main contradictions – a significant part of the community did not agree with this proposal, releasing BCHN client in response without the support of this option.
One of the main supporters of Bitcoin Cash and executive chairman of Bitcoin.com Roger Ver stated in an interview with CoinDesk that if PayPal payment company knew about the controversial hardfork, it would probably refuse to support the asset.
In the run-up to the update, most exchanges have frozen trading and input and output, but their policy on hardfork varies.
Bitfinex will open the spot markets BCHABC/USD and BCHN/USD as soon as possible by taking a preliminary network snapshot during the upgrade. Deposits and withdrawals to BCHABC and BCHN will not be available until the exchange is confident that the respective chains are in a stable state.
Recently it was reported that digital asset market has grown amid Biden’s victory in the 2020 US election.
