Bitcoin vs. Bitcoin Cash – What’s the Difference?

Ole
01.10.2021
160 Views
Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin (BTC) has long been given the status of the most popular cryptocurrency, and was introduced to the market as early as 2009. This was the market’s first cryptocurrency, but in the following years a number of new cryptocurrencies have emerged and in 2017 came Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

What exactly is the difference between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash every day? Both have the easily recognizable Bitcoin logo, only that Bitcoin Cash’s logo is green, while Bitcoin’s logo is orange. However, there are also some functional differences between the two.

In this guide we will explain to you what are the similarities and differences between the two popular cryptocurrencies!

Bitcoin has a challenge: Speed

Ever since Bitcoin was first launched, one of the cryptocurrency’s biggest challenges has been scalability and transfer speed.

The transactions are verified, processed and stored in blockchains, and are decentralized. This means that the transactions are not verified by any bank, but by users all over the world. Bitcoin’s blockchain technology is rather slow.

If we compare Bitcoin with Visa, the latter takes around 150,000,000 transactions per day, or around 1,700 transfers per second. In comparison, Bitcoin only takes 7 transactions per second, and the transactions can take several minutes to process.

As the Bitcoin network grew, the wait became longer as there were more transactions to process. This is where Bitcoin Cash comes into the picture – as a faster and more efficient alternative to Bitcoin. Bitcoin Cash boasts 116 transactions per second.

Why is Bitcoin Cash faster than Bitcoin?

Bitcoin Cash is designed to overcome some of Bitcoin’s challenges. To solve the problem of slow transactions on the blockchain, two solutions are used.

The first solution is to reduce the amount of data to be verified per block in the block chain. This in itself sale will make the transactions both cheaper and faster.

The second solution is to make the data blocks larger, so that a larger amount of data can be processed at a time. The blocks of Bitcoin are limited to 1 MB. In comparison, the blocks of Bitcoin Cash can handle up to 32 MB.

About Bitcoin

Bitcoin was launched in 2009, and it was an unknown person or group of people called Satoshi Nakamato who was behind it. Bitcoin was the world’s first publicly available cryptocurrency, and a decentralized network. In practice, this means that no central bank has control over the currency.

Bitcoin is based on a blockchain and peer-to-peer network. Each transaction will be published in the network, and miners verify the transactions. Verified transactions are registered in blocks, and these can also be linked to previous blocks, so that a chain is formed.

For Bitcoin, the process of creating new blocks is relatively slow, and it takes 10 minutes to generate a new block.

About Bitcoin Cash

Bitcoin Cash was started by Bitcoin miners and others who were concerned about Bitcoin’s scalability and future. In the late summer of 2017, miners and various developers launched an initiative called “hard fork”, and they created a new cryptocurrency called Bitcoin Cash.

Bitcoin Cash has its very own blockchain, and has blocks that are larger than the blocks of Bitcoin. With its 8 MB, the blockchain has the opportunity to speed up the verification process. There are also options for adjustments as needed.

In 2018, the block size increased further, to 32 MB. Based on this, Bitcoin Cash can perform transactions much faster than Bitcoin, and with lower fees.

The disadvantage of Bitcoin Cash is that the larger blocks are often associated with a greater security risk. The security can potentially be compressed. Another disadvantage is that Bitcoin Cash is less well known than Bitcoin, and that the market for using the currency is therefore smaller.

Bitcoin Cash can handle multiple users

The increased block size of Bitcoin Cash offers more benefits than just faster and cheaper transactions. Bitcoin Cash can also handle a larger number of transactions at once, or rather – several users.

This may make Bitcoin Cash better suited for future growth than Bitcoin, which can be a great advantage since more and more people are opening their eyes to cryptocurrency.

Another newcomer appears: Bitcoin SV

In 2018, another derivative of Bitcoin appeared, namely Bitcoin SV . This cryptocurrency is a result of Bitcoin Cash making its own hard fork. Bitcoin SV was designed to be more true to the original Satoshi first made, but at the same time with more scalability.

Bitcoin SV, Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash are today all popular forms of cryptocurrency, but there is no doubt that Bitcoin is still the largest of them all.

Which should you choose – Bitcoin Cash or Bitcoin?

We have now taken a closer look at Bitcoin vs. Bitcoin Cash. The difference between the two is primarily related to transaction speed, where Bitcoin Cash is far faster than the original.

Bitcoin Cash can provide 116 transactions per second, while Bitcoin only takes 7 transactions at a time. Bitcoin Cash also has lower fees, which is also a clear advantage. At the same time, many consider Bitcoin a safer and more stable alternative.

Bitcoin is also offered as a payment solution by several players, since the cryptocurrency is so large and well-known. This is good to keep in mind if you are going to use cryptocurrency for online shopping or the like.

If you are primarily going to trade cryptocurrency as an investment, Bitcoin may be the best choice. If, on the other hand, you are going to buy cryptocurrency to have a fast and efficient means of payment, Bitcoin Cash may be a better solution for you.

FAQ

[sc_fs_multi_faq headline-0=”h2″ question-0=”Hva er best av Bitcoin og Bitcoin Cash?” answer-0=”Bitcoin er den klart mest kjente og populære kryptovalutaen av de to, men Bitcoin Cash er best med tanke på skalerbarhet, transaksjonshastighet og gebyrer.” image-0=”” headline-1=”h2″ question-1=”Hva koster 1 Bitcoin vs. 1 Bitcoin Cash?” answer-1=”Prisen for 1 BTC er 42 850 amerikanske dollar, mens 1 BCH koster 494 amerikanske dollar. Husk at dette er prisen som gjelder i skrivende stund, og at tallene endrer seg hele tiden.” image-1=”” headline-2=”h2″ question-2=”Hvor finner jeg kurs for BTC og BCH?” answer-2=”Du kan finne oppdatert kurs og priser for BTC og BCH på en rekke nettsider. Sjekk for eksempel ut en kryptobørs som eToro, der du kan finne pris på BTC og BCH.” image-2=”” count=”3″ html=”true” css_class=””]

Author Ole

Ole jobber som freelance forfatter/skribent, men er også med på vårt team. Han har hatt en interesse for krypto i flere år og det er naturlig for han å opplyse andre om denne fantastiske teknologien. Ole sier selv at å skrive om kryptovaluta ikke er en jobb, men en lidenskap! For oss kan det jo ikke bli bedre!