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August 1 marks the eighth day of a cardinal infinitesimal successful Bitcoin’s (BTC) past — the archetypal activation of Segregated Witness (SegWit) successful 2017, a cardinal bundle upgrade that reshaped the network’s aboriginal and triggered a hard fork.
The move, known arsenic “Bitcoin Independence Day,” reduced miner power implicit the protocol and led to the instauration of Bitcoin Cash (BCH), highlighting the community's divisions implicit however Bitcoin should standard to enactment planetary use.
The “block size wars” were fought betwixt those who wanted to support the Bitcoin artifact size small and “big blockers,” a conjugation of miners and businesses that wanted to see much transactions successful each artifact to marque BTC suitable for mundane payments and commercialized transactions.
Big blockers, led by “Bitcoin Jesus,” Roger Ver, argued that Bitcoin fell abbreviated of Satoshi Nakamoto’s imaginativeness of a peer-to-peer physics currency system since its ledger’s constricted artifact abstraction could ne'er standard capable to accommodate the world’s transactions.
Source: Roger VerNode operators, developers and BTC users mounted a beardown absorption to the bigger artifact proposals, arguing that raising the artifact size would besides summation retention requirements for node operators.
A imaginable summation successful retention requirements would marque moving a node prohibitive for the mean user, thereby centralizing the Bitcoin network successful the hands of a fewer ample players who could tally the required hardware.
Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 91 was activated successful August 2017, paving the mode for scaling done the BTC Lightning Network, a mode of facilitating offchain outgo channels betwixt 2 oregon much users, with 1 last colony connected the Bitcoin ledger.
On Aug. 1, 2017, the large blockers divided from the Bitcoin network, resulting successful BCH instauration and altering Bitcoin past forever.
Excerpt from Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin achromatic insubstantial astir keeping retention costs for nodes manageable. Source: Bitcoin.OrgRelated: OG Bitcoiners are rotating out, but it’s a steadfast dynamic: Analysts
Bitcoin and BCH, wherever are they now?
Since the Bitcoin Cash hard fork successful August 2017, the terms has oscillated, hitting an all-time precocious of astir $1,600 successful May 2021 during the erstwhile bull marketplace cycle.
However, the terms soon collapsed, hitting an all-time debased of astir $90 during the 2022 carnivore market. Currently, BCH is trading astatine astir $552 — the aforesaid terms levels it was trading astatine 8 years ago, instantly pursuing its debut.
Meanwhile, the terms of Bitcoin has appreciated by astir 4,200% during that aforesaid eight-year period. On Aug. 1, 2017, BTC was trading hands astatine astir $2,718 and is presently trading astatine astir $115,000, down from its all-time precocious of astir $122,000 recorded successful July.
The terms of Bitcoin Cash, shown successful magenta, has remained reasonably flat, contempt oscillations passim the years, portion BTC has appreciated to implicit $115,000. Source: TradingViewToday, Bitcoin boasts a marketplace headdress of implicit $2.2 trillion, portion Bitcoin Cash has a full marketplace headdress of astir $10.9 billion.
The schism betwixt the 2 networks highlights the statement betwixt those who privation to usage the BTC web for a assortment of purposes, including retail purchases and record storage, versus those defining BTC arsenic a decentralized store of worth — a conflict that inactive rages today.
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