Bitcoin Cash: Another Path for Bitcoin

Source: ElBitcoin Original Title: That Branch of Bitcoin We Call “Bitcoin Cash” Original Link:

I am convinced that Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is the best version of Bitcoin. I have not come to this conclusion through a religious experience or anything of the sort. After years of reflection, I remain convinced that BCH is not only consistent with Satoshi’s vision of what Bitcoin was and how it should scale, but I also find that Satoshi’s own position is consistent with reality (that is, he was right).

For Satoshi Nakamoto, the technological solution described in the Bitcoin whitepaper addressed the need for a decentralized and censorship-resistant means of payment. As he presented it, a network that does not depend on the goodwill of its participants, but on the economic incentive that enables honest actors to stand up to potential attackers (whom we must always assume are present).

That is essentially what Bitcoin is. And the security of that Bitcoin, as envisioned by Satoshi Nakamoto, doesn’t rely on a user running five non-mining nodes, but on its proof of work system (POW); in other words, it’s a Bitcoin whose decentralization is manifested in the underlying infrastructure formed by miners.

The miners, as part of this system, are reliable market agents, not because Satoshi assumed that human beings are naturally “good,” but because he knew that economic principles prevail over good intentions because they are a reflection (that we have come to know) of reality. It’s clear, then, that I am not referring to the asset everyone knows as Bitcoin: I am not referring to Bitcoin-BTC.

The Branch of Bitcoin I Defend

When I talk about Bitcoin in the terms I used in the previous paragraphs, I am referring to the IDEA presented under that name. An idea with a historical context that still has supporters. That idea is still alive in Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Whether Bitcoin-BTC maximalists like it or not, BCH is another branch of that project. It is the continuation of that vision, and of the mindset of the early bitcoiners.

A branch that, in 2017, became a P2P network independent from Bitcoin-BTC (that is, a different cryptocurrency in terms of name) even knowing that this decision would mean having to rebuild much of the infrastructure and win back the adoption that had been achieved up to that point. But also a branch that values those “classic” ideas enough to put them into practice.

That is Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and I am convinced by these ideas. The vision of the Bitcoin Cash branch of the Bitcoin project is, for me, worthwhile, because I know that its approach to BCH as decentralized money that can be used worldwide as a digital means of payment is what humanity will need in the medium and long term.