Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a fork of Bitcoin created on August 1, 2017, in response to the Bitcoin scaling debate. The fundamental disagreement: should Bitcoin scale through larger blocks (more transactions per block) or through Layer 2 solutions like the Lightning Network? The group favoring bigger blocks forked Bitcoin to create BCH with an 8 MB block size limit (later increased to 32 MB), compared to Bitcoin's 1 MB (effectively ~4 MB with SegWit).
BCH positions itself as "peer-to-peer electronic cash" — the original Bitcoin vision as described in Satoshi Nakamoto's whitepaper. With larger blocks, BCH can handle significantly more transactions per second at lower fees than Bitcoin's base layer, making it more practical for everyday purchases and commerce. Transaction fees are typically under $0.01.
While BCH has never achieved Bitcoin's market dominance or institutional adoption, it maintains a dedicated community focused on merchant adoption and payment utility. CashFusion and CashShuffle provide privacy features, and the SmartBCH sidechain (though facing challenges) attempted to bring EVM-compatible smart contracts to the BCH ecosystem.
The Bitcoin scaling war raged from 2015-2017, splitting the community between "small blockers" (Layer 2 scaling) and "big blockers" (on-chain scaling). On August 1, 2017, BCH forked from Bitcoin at block 478,558. Every Bitcoin holder received an equal amount of BCH.
BCH itself later forked in November 2018, splitting into Bitcoin Cash (BCH) led by Roger Ver and Bitcoin SV (BSV) led by Craig Wright, in a contentious "hash war." Key figures like Roger Ver ("Bitcoin Jesus") championed BCH as the "real Bitcoin," while critics argued the larger block approach was a technical dead end. Despite ongoing debate, BCH has maintained consistent development, with recent upgrades focusing on adaptive block sizes, CHIP (Cash Improvement Proposals), and token support through CashTokens.
BCH uses proof-of-work consensus with the SHA-256 algorithm (same as Bitcoin), meaning it competes for miners with Bitcoin's network. BCH implemented an Automatic Replay Protection system and a different difficulty adjustment algorithm (ASERT DAA) to prevent hash rate instability. Blocks are produced approximately every 10 minutes with a current maximum size of 32 MB — allowing roughly 100+ transactions per second.
CashTokens (added in 2023) enable fungible and non-fungible tokens on BCH without requiring a separate protocol layer. This brings basic smart contract and tokenization capabilities to BCH while maintaining its focus on fast, cheap, reliable payments. CashFusion provides optional privacy by combining multiple users' transactions, obscuring the link between inputs and outputs.
BCH has a maximum supply of 21 million coins (same as Bitcoin), with approximately 19.7 million mined. Block rewards halve every 210,000 blocks — BCH's most recent halving in April 2024 reduced rewards from 6.25 to 3.125 BCH. Transaction fees are burned by the network. The mining reward schedule is identical to Bitcoin's, meaning all BCH will be mined by approximately 2140. There was no pre-mine or ICO — initial BCH distribution mirrored Bitcoin holdings at the fork.
BCH processes transactions for under $0.01 with confirmations in roughly 10 minutes, making it genuinely useful for everyday purchases and merchant payments.
SHA-256 proof-of-work and 7+ years of continuous operation provide strong security guarantees. BCH has never suffered a successful 51% attack.
21 million hard cap with no inflation beyond the mining schedule — BCH shares Bitcoin's scarcity thesis.
Native token support expands BCH's utility beyond payments into areas like loyalty programs, tickets, and basic financial instruments.
BCH has dramatically less mining hash rate than Bitcoin, making it theoretically more vulnerable to 51% attacks — though the cost would still be substantial.
The 'real Bitcoin' argument has largely been settled by the market in Bitcoin's favor. BCH struggles for attention and investment relative to newer, more innovative projects.
Despite CashTokens, BCH lacks the DeFi infrastructure that attracts developers and users to EVM-compatible chains or Solana.
Multiple forks (BSV, eCash) and internal disagreements have fragmented the big-block Bitcoin community, diluting development resources and momentum.
The split occurred in August 2017 over a fundamental disagreement about scaling Bitcoin. One group wanted to keep small blocks and scale through Layer 2 solutions (Lightning Network). The other wanted to increase block size directly. Bitcoin Cash forked with 8MB blocks (later increased to 32MB), while Bitcoin maintained its 1MB limit.
BCH offers faster confirmation times and lower fees for payments, but it has a fraction of Bitcoin's network security, liquidity, and adoption. BCH has found a niche as a payment-focused cryptocurrency, particularly in communities like the one around the Bitcoin Cash Register and retail payment applications.
In practice, BCH and BTC have diverged into different markets. Bitcoin is primarily a store of value and institutional asset. BCH focuses on peer-to-peer payments with larger blocks and lower fees. Most investors view them as separate assets rather than direct competitors.
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