Bitcoin Cash forks into two competing chains today as mining operations align behind incompatible network upgrades. The BitcoinABC and BitcoinSV proposals represent distinct visions for how the blockc
Bitcoin Cash forks into two competing chains today as mining operations align behind incompatible network upgrades. The BitcoinABC and BitcoinSV proposals represent distinct visions for how the blockchain should develop. Developers built neither client with replay protection, exposing users to significant risk when the split occurs around 4:40 PM UTC on November 15.
BitcoinABC retains the backing of the original BCH developer community and several major exchanges. BitcoinSV answers to Craig Wright, who leads the Bitcoin SV project, and Calvin Ayre of Coingeek. Through its mining pools Coingeek and SVPool, Ayre's operation controls about 70% of Bitcoin Cash hashpower, a commanding advantage as the fork date approaches.
Wright has issued a stream of aggressive warnings on Twitter that Coingeek will deploy its hashpower to mine empty blocks and orphan competing ABC blocks until participants abandon the ABC chain. His warnings have grown increasingly bizarre as the fork draws near, with threats centered on using hashpower dominance to eliminate the ABC network entirely. If Coingeek executes this plan, users and merchants will find themselves trapped in a prolonged battle between two chains with no mechanism for safe transactions.
ABC developers selected a distinct technical direction from what Wright and his backers envision for Bitcoin Cash. Their upgrade implements CTOR, which sorts transactions within mined blocks by transaction ID rather than entry order. Developers argue this change improves block propagation times even as blocks grow larger. The upgrade also introduces OP_CHECKDATASIG, a new opcode that enables oracle services and basic smart contract functionality on BCH. BitcoinSV backers rejected these proposals outright and moved in the opposite direction, restoring opcodes that Bitcoin removed in previous years, eliminating per-script opcode limits, and raising the maximum block size to 128 megabytes.
Bitmain and Roger Ver, who dominated BCH mining since the 2017 fork that created Bitcoin Cash, now face mounting constraints on their ability to influence events. Bitmain confronts greater regulatory scrutiny as it prepares for a public offering and has suffered substantial losses from mining operations. Ver released a video expressing serious doubt about Bitcoin Cash's direction given the contentious nature of this fork. Neither party appears positioned to bring sufficient hashpower to match Coingeek's current dominance in the mining ecosystem.
When a user sends a transaction on one chain, it executes on both until operators manually prevent the duplication. This exact scenario plagued the ETH/ETC fork and caused severe difficulties for unprepared exchanges. Major exchanges plan to suspend deposits and withdrawals for an extended period until some clarity emerges about which chain will remain viable. Trezor supports the ABC client but advises users to avoid transacting until the fork settles completely.
If Coingeek mines at a loss to orphan ABC blocks at scale, ABC developers have mentioned a final option as a backstop: changing Bitcoin Cash's proof-of-work algorithm to exclude SHA-256 miners. Without Bitmain deploying additional hashpower in support of ABC, or without redirecting Bitcoin mining equipment toward Bitcoin Cash, the outcome remains uncertain. Both chains could persist in some form, or one will emerge as the sole functional Bitcoin Cash.
Participants in pre-fork trading across exchanges show a slight preference for BCHABC. Observers point to Coin.Dance as the best real-time tracker for monitoring the fork as events unfold and the two sides vie for dominance.
