Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash? A Simple Rundown

Bitcoin is confusing by its own nature alone. Add in the hard fork that the mining community (which was the main force blocking the upgrade to Bitcoin Improvement Project #141) responded with referred to as UAHF, to enable a block size increase as the main scaling method and we now have Bitcoin (BTC) from the UASF blockchain and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) from the UAHF blockchain. But what the fuck does this all mean? Seriously...

To keep it simple, Bitcoin OG is the big kid on the blockchain block. That is obvious, especially as it approaches $10k for a single Bitcoin. Bitcoin Cash is really an alt-coin... or in this instance a fork-coin may be a better term. Each coin serves a distinct purpose and each has its merits and drawbacks.

One of the current issues plaguing Bitcoin is the high cost of transactions. This limits the use for small transactions. The other issue at hand is the slow and unreliable transaction times. The Bitcoin network is only capable of handling seven transactions per second. These two factors alone limit it immensely when it comes to peer to peer transactions.

Where Bitcoin shines is in its development. It is THE store of value in the crypto world. If you are hedging your central bank controlled fiat currency, this seems to be the place to do it. This really comes down to the number of contributors including old and new individual contributors, company contributors and anonymous contributors. Development in Bitcoin is identical to a "Free Open Source Software" (FOSS) style, which includes a strict peer review before release. This large, decentralized developer ecosystem is what makes Bitcoin so appealing. It makes it less likely to be fucked with by a single entity. Another aspect that many overlook (not the feds) is that Bitcoin is the primary currency used in Dark Web Markets (DWM). Before Alpha Bay was shut down, it was responsible for $280,000 in BTC transactions per day. So, here is what we have with BTC; higher security through a multitude of nodes, and heavily peer reviewed Bitcoin improvement process, long history of success in hedging against central banks, and support at all turns by a global community.

Bitcoin Cash is still in its infancy. However, the ease of use and reliability has driven it forward. Development of BCH is controlled by a very small group of people relatively speaking in comparison to Bitcoin. This lends to having a small developer ecosystem that is not as strict and has little to no peer review. This could be potentially disastrous as a simple programming error could render end users currency lost or stuck. This can be and will be resolved as the development ecosystem grows. Bitcoin Cash solved a lot of problems. The on-chain scalability is better for usability. Users can cash in, immediately start making payments, then cash out. There is sometimes no need to wait for confirmations with some smaller payments since they are not very high risk of being a double spend. The low (nearly non-existent compared to Bitcoin) transaction fees lend to better usage on a day to day basis. Despite the potential for instability, it is incredibly reliable. This is a great platform for sending money worldwide instantly with little cost to do so. Then benefits to Bitcoin Cash is really in the ability to use it more readily for everyday transactions. Bitcoin Cash will benefit greatly as more vendors begin to accept it as a direct form of payment. I do not foresee this as being used on DWMs. The lack of having a segregated witness; the small number of nodes; and under developed development ecosystem does not create a currency viable for use in a marketplace where security and privacy are of the top concern.

At this point, it is my personal opinion that Bitcoin Cash is risky. It can really go either way. If more merchants begin accepting it you could see more of a jump in price. If it runs into problems, it could be disastrous for investors.

TL;DR

BCH - Good for daily use and transactions.
BTC - Good for long term hedge against central banks.

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