A war between Bitcoin and Bitcoin to Cash. How it all began?

Bitcoin came out of nowhere. "The Genesis block" was mined on 3 January 2009, the idea was good, the double spend was not, followers cryptocurrency just arrived. They bought pizza for bitcoins and drugs on Silk Riad's advice about Bitcoin to friends and asking people on eBay if want to take the crypt. Then their friends wrote to people on eBay, was born forum topics and it was good. In the beginning was the word and the word was "bitcoin".

But very soon Bitcoin has attracted the attention of journalists, governments, Silicon valley and Wall Street, and the network began to slow down. Team Bitcoin realized that if nothing is done, the network will be unbearably slow and the transaction will be held for days or weeks. So the transactions carried out faster, will have to raise the Commission, and Bitcoin will become impractical to use. The crisis began scalability.

what is the difference between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash?

The Bitcoin Community is divided into two camps: supporters of the big blocks and small blocks supporters, each armed with his solution to the crisis of scalability. Nobody liked the idea of dividing teams developing Bitcoin, but each side was convinced of his rightness. August 1, 2017, the supporters of large blocks separated. They dubbed the Bitcoin blockchain, the transaction history and called their version Bitcoin Cash. It was a "hard fork", rigid fork, which meant eternal separation of the two cryptocurrencies, as Bitcoin transactions Cash will be recorded in a separate database, a separate record. Everyone who had bitcoins (BTC) on 1 August, received an equal amount of Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

Began "civil war" in the world of Bitcoin, which continues to this day. Fighting subreddits. There is a war of edits on Wikipedia. 1 APR publish fake announcement that the militant defenders of Bitcoin go Bitcoin for Cash.

In early April, the moderator of the conference Deconomy in Seoul said, "Why this strife between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash?". The Cash Bitcoin Evangelist Roger Ver said that the split was "discredited" and that the project "more children around the world dying because they have less economic freedom." His colleague Samson Mau that support Bitcoin, reasoned more carefully, noting that the strife is due to the use of the name Bitcoin. But his Twitter account is full of quips Bitcoin address Cash. A little later, the account @Bitcoin on Twitter, belonging to the supporters of Bitcoin Cash, had been frozen, probably because of complaints from supporters of Bitcoin.

It has been eight months since the separation of the Bitcoin blockchain, and return nothing. Why two camps devote so much time to insult each other?

"Arguments passed through three or four years of fierce dispute," says Andreas Antonopoulos, a well-known supporter of Bitcoin. "There are principles and their necessary and important to save, but most of the drama has nothing to do with principles. Most disputes relevant to the offense. A case of hurt ego. The fact that the word is not a Sparrow, did not return, and much has been said, an exchange of insults occurred, the fact personalities and ego."

Antonopoulos tried to remain neutral regarding disputes between Bitcoin and Bitcoin to Cash, for which he was severely criticized. "If you do not choose sides, then each side will accuse you that you give the other side," he says. "This is ridiculous".

The Only clear difference between Bitcoin and Bitcoin to Cash of a technical nature: Cash in Bitcoin blocks more, they are the same collection of transactions processed through the network, which in theory means greater transaction throughput per second. Bitcoin is also concerned about the growing volume of transactions, but it also includes removal of a part of data outside of the Bitcoin blockchain that allows you to leave small blocks in the network. Theoretically it retains the experimental spirit of Bitcoin, because the small blocks would allow anyone to run "node" or the node, and the network will be supported by a small team of users, not large institutions like banks. That is, will remain decentralized. A complete history of all transactions of the Bitcoin network (Bitcoin Core), downloaded to the computer weighs quite a lot — 159 GB. Increasing the size of the blocks in the theory increases this number. And if 159 GB can still be found on the hard disk, if a strong desire, 460 GB and more difficult.

If you look in General, a coalition of Bitcoin Cash in favour of the use of their cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange for the commercial sector. "Rumor has it that the proponents of Bitcoin like Cash says: can my grandmother use it?", says anonymous cryptoanalysis.

In contrast, a coalition of Bitcoin more friendly to cryptocurrency investors and less concerned with daily payments. "Bitcoin is the preservation of the values in the first place," said Michael Moro, CEO of Genesis Trading. "I don't think it would be wise to use payments for a variety of reasons". He says that his company does not apply to individual coins, but "investor interest in Bitcoin Cash is practically absent in the last couple of months."

"If you compare two coins on the bitcoin side I see a huge focus on price, a huge focus on talking about "storing value," says major-General Emin Sirer, a Cornell University Professor that support Bitcoin Cash. "Storage of value" refers to the asset class that is not impaired.

"If we look at Bitcoin Cash, they are not focused on price," says Sirer. "They focus on the fact that people used the coin. If you look at their forums, every day there is a new message: larechki on this tiny island began to take Bitcoin Cash. They do it organically, sprouting from the bottom, from scratch."

There is another reason for the split: Craig Wright, an Australian businessman who claimed that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the unknown Creator of Bitcoin, who disappeared in 2011, but was not able to prove this. Wright is a supporter of Bitcoin Cash, repeating the slogan: Bitcoin Cash is a Bitcoin. He has supporters in the Bitcoin community Cash, although many consider him a liar and prefer not to talk about it. Sirer called Wright "an interesting character with a history of fraud". "In any society there is a cult of personality," he adds.

It is Important to note that the community of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash is a decentralised coalition. Each side has its loud supporters, but no Central bodies or official representatives. Some bichenovii proponents want Bitcoin was a medium of exchange, and Bitcoin Cash attracts the attention of speculators. There are also users that support both the coalition.

The Question is, Bitcoin Cash: would people use a coin really. Bitcoin Cash costs ten times less than Bitcoin, and the Bitcoin economy Cash is still small in comparison with the economy of Bitcoin. But not small. According Chainalysis, Bitcoin Cash on the $ 230 million was wagered on the exchanges in March and some of 2.62 billion dollars was sent in Bitcoin.

It is also Noteworthy that Bitcoin Cash was able to rebuild the infrastructure of Bitcoin, including the nodes, the purses, the development team, for such a short time. Mike Hearn, a well-known early developer of Bitcoin, which offered the update in the style of Bitcoin Cash in 2014, is skeptical towards the BCH. But he was struck by the speed with which BCH rebuilt infrastructure and rebuilt the community, which he shared on Reddit. Moreover, people are willing to start using Bitcoin Cash due to stagnation at the peak of the Bitcoin network. In December 2017, many refused to accept money transfers in bitcoins due to increased activity and high Commission. Bitcoin Cash because of the increased block size, in theory, to cope with the growth in the number of transactions.

The Opponents of Bitcoin is called a cryptocurrency Cash Bcash, Btrash or just "Scam", and supporters of the Bitcoin Cash insist that their implementation is a more pure form of bitcoins. The Cash Bitcoin conference, which was held in Tokyo in March, for example, was called "Satoshi's Vision". "Their technology is worse, so they rely on censorship, trying to hide the achievements and advantages of the present Bitcoins" tweeted billionaire and supporter of the Bitcoin Cash Calvin Ayre.

Antonopulos believes that such statements aggravate the struggle.

"the point is that in a world dominated by closed, monopolistic, state-owned, managed, controlled and monitored currencies, which represent a fundamental existential threat to democracy and freedom in the world," he says. "We are at a crossroads, and it's not a crossroads between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash".

Thus was born a new slogan, says Antonopoulos: BUIDL ("STRIA"), misspelled "build" by analogy with HODL.

"STRIA something. Anything. Do your thing. Write code. Write the documentation. I don't care whether it's Bitcoin or Bitcoin or even Cash," he says. "They get distracted by all the bullshit."