Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a proof-of-work blockchain network and cryptocurrency that aims to be faster and cheaper to use than Bitcoin (BTC) by adhering to a strict interpretation of the Satoshi Whitepaper.
A brief history
Bitcoin Cash came about in 2017 and was created to address concerns over Bitcoin's scalability while staying as close to its original vision as a form of digital cash. It’s a hard fork of the Bitcoin blockchain, meaning the network “split” in two at a certain block as decided on by various miners and developers within the Bitcoin network.
Bitcoin Cash uses an increased block size with an adjustable level of difficulty to ensure fast transactions as its user base scales. At a technical level, Bitcoin Cash works exactly the same as Bitcoin.
Both platforms have a hard cap of 21 million assets, use nodes to validate transactions, and use a PoW consensus algorithm. However, BCH operates faster and has lower transaction fees than its predecessor, thanks to the aforementioned larger block size.
Bitcoin Cash can support 25,000 transactions per block compared with Bitcoin’s 1,000 to 1,500 per block.
Additionally, as of March 2022, the maximum block size for BCH was increased fourfold to 32 MB.
BCH in practice
Just like bitcoin, you can use bitcoin cash as a payment method- all you need to do is use a wallet address to send the assets to a wallet. BCH is accepted by merchants around the world, among other cryptocurrencies, for payment.
There are also websites for travel, goods and services, e-commerce, and more than may accept the asset.
BCH can also be mined. If you mine BCH, your computer verifies new transactions and collects them in a transaction block. As users help to maintain the Bitcoin Cash blockchain, they receive BCH as a reward.
Mining BCH, however, takes considerable computing power and resources due to the large block sizes- so it might not be applicable to all users.
It takes about 12 confirmation to accept your BCH to wallet.
If you need a secured wallet we recommend you use Luno which is available on your google playstore. Use the promo code to redeem your R200 BTC voucher.
