So today I saw on on a number of channels on Youtube that Bitcoin will indeed hard fork on August 1st and create a new chain called Bitcoin Cash (BCC or BTCC). This definitely creates a lot of tension and confusion for people. Right now I have my Bitcoin on Luno which is the best exchange to use in South Africa but they made it clear that they will not be supporting Bitcoin Cash (BCC) so this leaves me now learning how paper wallets work and how to store my Bitcoin offline.
Image source : bitcoin-vs-gold-vs-cash.jpg
So what is Bitcoin Cash?
The big thing that I read on https://news.bitcoin.com/what-every-bitcoiner-should-know-about-bitcoin-cash/ was that Bitcoin Cash 's block size will be 8MB where the block size of Bitcoin is now only at 1MB and it may increase to 2MB soon but still it looks like Bitcoin Cash will be a lot faster in terms of transactions per second.
Now the price of Bitcoin Cash is a another story altogether because at the moment it looks like most of the big cryptocurrency exchanges will not support the new Bitcoin Cash (like Coinbase) and so it may be hard to trade your newly created Bitcoin Cash once the chain splits. On the futures markets Bitcoin Cash is trading at just above $400 but so much could still change before August 1st so although this gives us an indication of its price its far from being certain.
What I plan to do
Right now I'm looking to take my Bitcoin to an offline wallet (don't know exactly how yet) and then wait for August 1 and receive my free Bitcoin Cash . You will sit with double the amount of how much you had before the chain split (same amount of BTC plus the newly created BCC). Then I will decide whether I want to get rid of the BCC straight away or maybe hold on to it for a while and see if its price increases. I have a Jaxx wallet and I saw on their twitter that they may support Bitcoin Cash so maybe I'll just transfer my Bitcoin there.
There is some of the big mining pools that looks to support the new Bitcoin Cash like Bitmain (Antpool) and viaBTC. So while everything is a bit chaotic at the moment there is also a possibility that Bitcoin Cash could become a viable cryptocurrency in the future and maybe even become bigger that Bitcoin. Imagine that!
Please share your thoughts on the hard fork and what you plan to do with your coins
Have a great day!
what is BITCOIN?
Hi @stepdadbam, basically Bitcoin is a digital currency that you can buy on an exchange or earn through a process called mining. The great thing about it is that it is decentralized meaning not you or I or any single entity can control it. And it has a fixed supply of 21 million coins so it can't inflate like our fiat money (dollar or euro). I'm curious as to how you know about STEEM but have not heard of Bitcoin?