Bitcoin is now split into two: Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. This event happened when a section of its community decided to divide the Blockchain, an online ledger of Bitcoin. Despite rumors, Bitcoin Cash has performed well and is now the third most valuable cryptocurrency – right below the Bitcoin and Ethereum.
For two years, there has been a debate about making changes to Bitcoin protocol. A large segment of miners, the people who run this protocol on their computers, were not satisfied with the number of transaction they could process. Only 1 MB of transactions could be processed in 10 minutes, making the process slower. However, some miners disagreed – increasing the transaction limit would require higher computing power, thus making it a business of big miners only. Now, when key miners and developers have agreed to adopt a new protocol, 8 MB of transactions can be processed on Bitcoin Cash.
On Tuesday, during the process of this transformation, a number of exchanges around the world, including Pakistan, blocked the users from making transactions. However, now the system has come back to normal.
Users were concerned regarding the status of their bitcoins. Those who held the bitcoins before the split will be able to use it on both block chains – they just need to make sure that their exchange has adopted the new Bitcoin Cash. Coinbase, the world’s largest digital currency exchange, has rejected Bitcoin Cash, arguing that their system can’t support it, however, a number of others have embraced it. Users, already holding bitcoins, will have the same amount if they use Bitcoin cash.
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