Bitcoin Cash Undergoes Hard Fork, Splitting Into Two New Chains

Bitcoin Cash (BCH), a spin-off of Bitcoin created in 2017, has undergone yet another split. Previously, in 2018, BCH split into Bitcoin Cash ABC and Bitcoin Cash SV.

The planned hard fork happened on Nov. 15, splitting the Bitcoin Cash network into two separate chains — Bitcoin Cash Node (BCHN) and Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCH ABC).

BCH has split into two separate chains – BCHN and BCHABC – with BCHN mining the first block and leading for the #BCH ticker. pic.twitter.com/Og6rKzKjgu

— Bitcoin Cash (@bch_pls) November 15, 2020

BCH successfully performed the hard fork according to a previously estimated time. at block height 661,447, which was the last common block for BCH ABC and BCHN. The fork happened as the Bitcoin Cash Node and the Bitcoin Cash ABC communities could not come to an agreement on what the future rules of the network should be. According to a Nov. 13 press release:

“Whereas both implementations agree on a novel mining algorithm, supporters of BCH ABC want a portion of the block reward (around 8 per cent) to be distributed to the developer team, which undoubtedly causes centralization to the development efforts similar to other projects.”

In the run-up to the hard fork, BCH holders sent an average of more than 154,000 coins per day to exchanges over the past week. Earlier this month, a slew of major cryptocurrency exchanges and projects, including Binance, Huobi, and OKEx, pledged support for the then upcoming fork. Crypto exchange Kraken said it would support Bitcoin Cash Node if any BCH chain split occurs in November. The exchange also stated that it would continue to use the “BCH” ticker for the non-developer fund implementation. It justifies its stance by referencing 70 per cent of the network signaling support for Bitcoin Cash Node versus less than 1 per cent for Bitcoin Cash ABC.