Is it possible that Bitcoin Cash could actually be more profitable to mine than Bitcoin?
Possibly.
It certainly hasn't been the case over the past few weeks but the tide is starting to change.
Especially now that Bitcoin Cash has rallied over 100% in the last day or so, currently trading for $640 per coin.
Why is that?
With this latest price surge, miners are making over 2% more mining Bitcoin Cash vs. mining Bitcoin.
That spread is likely to increase even further with the mining difficulty algorithm being adjusted downwards by about 50% in the coming days.
This weekend, block 479,808 is set to trigger a difficulty adjustment downwards by roughly 50%. That would mean that all things being equal, miners would make almost double mining Bitcoin Cash vs. mining Bitcoin.
Keep in mind that all things are not equal though...
There are also mining fees on both chains, and currently Bitcoin has fees of roughly $6,000 USD (1.5 Bitcoins) per block while Bitcoin Cash has fees of around $50 USD per block.
However, the speed at which the confirmations come is a big difference currently between the two.
Currently Bitcoin gets the 100 confirmations needed in order to spend the mining reward in about 17 hours. Bitcoin Cash gets those same 100 confirmations in about 34 hours, twice as long.
The much higher liquidity is a huge advantage of mining Bitcoin vs. mining Bitcoin Cash.
However, that may change in the near future...
As the profitability for miners increases on Bitcoin Cash, it is only natural that more miners will move from Bitcoin over to Bitcoin Cash, increasing liquidity.
We are already seeing that happen now, as the price of Bitcoin Cash rises, more computing resources are being directed towards that chain.
Which means...
It looks like Bitcoin Cash is here to stay (at least in the short term), and I would not be surprised to see Bitcoin Cash continue to trend higher while Bitcoin trends lower in the very near term.
Especially with all the new mom and pop investors starting to enter the space and deciding to buy the cheaper Bitcoin alternative..
