For those who are only just starting to learn about Bitcoin, it is impossible not to come across the Bitcoin civil war. Others may term it as hash wars or schisms, but it is essentially a civil war as it involves conflict within the Bitcoin community, which ended up being divided into three factions. This article will briefly explain what happened in the Bitcoin civil war and learnings from it.
The Prelude
In 2017, after years of disagreement on scaling and protocol issues, the Bitcoin community was split into Bitcoin Core (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). BTC did not want to scale the blockchain’s data blocks, and instead opted to store extra transactions off-chain, which required changing the original Bitcoinprotocol that was supposed to be set in stone. BTC kept the original Bitcoin ticker symbol and its tiny 1MB block size cap, but those were the only things it retained.
BCH, on the other hand, were composed of people who wanted to stay true to Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision. It proceeded to scale its block size cap to 32MB in order to handle more transactions.
The Bitcoin Civil War
BCH soon became embroiled in conflict once again—and over almost the same issues. BCH split into those who felt that 32MB blocks are enough and scaling should not be a priority and those who thought that following Nakamoto’s vision is the key to Bitcoin’s success. Furthermore, the former group chose to create a network that is anonymous and untraceable, which involves introducing code that will again change the supposedly fixed Bitcoin protocol. It also opens the BCH network to criminal activity.
Nakamoto’s followers would not stand for this concept of Bitcoin, and so, the Bitcoin Civil War happened. A forced takeover of the BCH ticker symbol headed by Bitcoin ABC leaders and bitcoin.comCEO Roger Ver occurred on November 15, 2020. To this day, this date is celebrated as Bitcoin Independence Day—the day Bitcoin was freed to realize its full potential through the founding of Bitcoin SV (BSV).
The Return to the Original
What can be learned from what happened in the past is that the original is still the best. Although with upgrades and improvements, Bitcoin SV has brought back Bitcoin’s original design and goals. The Bitcoin SV blockchain can now accommodate big data as its block size cap was lifted. The Bitcoin SV protocol is as stable as ever and is now set in stone.
Moreover, Bitcoin SV promotes government interaction and a law-abiding attitude. Investors should keep this in mind. Only when Bitcoin SV works within the rule of law can it be valid—and only then will it gain global enterprises’ confidence and prosper to become the one global chain that can lead the world.
