Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a crypto asset running on its own blockchain network. The main Bitcoin blockchain underwent a hard fork in 2017 after disputes among the community regarding technical aspects of its makeup. The fork resulted in two different blockchains and native assets: BTC on the original Bitcoin blockchain and BCH on a new Bitcoin Cash blockchain. Both cryptocurrencies have a maximum supply of 21 million coins.
What is Bitcoin Cash?
At its simplest, BCH presents itself as a digital means of payment — peer-to-peer electronic cash. The 2017 Bitcoin fork took place following disagreements among the BTC community regarding the scalability of Bitcoin.
BTC has had issues in terms of scaling over the years. The Bitcoin Cash community aims to keep BCH functional as a scalable means of payment, in part by utilizing significantly larger block sizes than the Bitcoin blockchain. The larger block size gives Bitcoin Cash greater transaction speed potential, although some in the BTC community argue that this change makes the asset less secure. BCH touts itself as pursuing BTC's original goals of serving as a digital form of money, as described in the original 2008 Bitcoin white paper.
In 2018, after clashes within the Bitcoin Cash community, Bitcoin SV (BSV) forked away from the Bitcoin Cash blockchain as a separate chain and asset. Among other things, Bitcoin SV advocates for even larger blocks.
How does Bitcoin Cash work? The BCH asset functions on its own proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain with miners running the network. Wondering how to mine Bitcoin Cash? Check out Cointelegraph's Cryptopedia article on the subject.
BCH price live today
The top of the page shows an up-to-date price for BCH in U.S. dollars (USD) as a BCH to USD live price. The Bitcoin Cash marketcap, a BCH price chart showing a Bitcoin Cash price history, and more are also available above. When it comes to Bitcoin Cash vs. Bitcoin, the price of Bitcoin Cash has historically traded much lower on average than the price of Bitcoin.
