Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a cryptocurrency that emerged in August 2017 via a hard fork of Bitcoin. The fork resulted from debates about how to scale Bitcoin for increasing transaction volumes, leading advocates like Haipo Yang and Roger Ver to push for larger block sizes—initially 1 MB to 8 MB, and later up to 32 MB—to enable faster transaction throughput and lower fees. This approach aims to establish BCH as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system, emphasizing speed and affordability over Bitcoin’s more conservative scaling strategy.
Bitcoin Cash uses a Proof-of-Work (PoW) blockchain with the SHA-256 hashing algorithm (like Bitcoin), but it supports blocks of up to 32 MB, allowing more transactions per block at reduced fees. In addition to straightforward payments, BCH supports smart contracts through the Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP), enabling custom tokens and on-chain applications. It also uses the Adaptive Block Limit Algorithm (ABLA) to dynamically adjust block sizes, maintaining efficiency even as the network grows.
Thanks to its quick transaction speeds and low fees, Bitcoin Cash is an attractive option for a variety of real-world scenarios:
Bitcoin Cash debuted at Bitcoin block height 478,558 in August 2017. Beyond the initial block size upgrades, key milestones include:
BCH reached over $4,000 USD in December 2017 at its price peak. The network continues to evolve by refining its smart contract capabilities and improving scalability, striving to be a widely accepted, global electronic cash solution—evidenced by merchant adoption and its use in regions with high inflation, such as Venezuela.