The branch of Bitcoin that we call Bitcoin Cash

I am convinced that Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is the best version of Bitcoin. I did not come to this conclusion through a religious experience or anything like that. After years of reflection, I am still convinced that BCH is not only consistent with Satoshi’s vision of what Bitcoin was and how it should scale, but I also think that Satoshi’s own position is consistent with reality (that is, he was right).

For Satoshi Nakamoto, the technological solution described in the Bitcoin whitepaper addressed the need for a decentralized and censorship-resistant payment method, and as he presented it, a network that does not depend on the goodwill of its participants, but on the economic incentive that allows honest actors to stand up to potential attackers (who we must always assume are present).

In essence, that is Bitcoin. And the security of that Bitcoin envisioned by Satoshi Nakamoto does not rely on a user running five non-mining nodes, but on its proof of work system (POW); that is, it is a Bitcoin whose decentralization is manifested in the underlying infrastructure formed by the miners.

Miners, as part of this system, are reliable market agents—not because Satoshi assumed that humans are naturally good, but because he knew that the principles of economics outweigh good intentions, as they are a reflection (that we have come to know) of reality. It is clear, then, that I am not referring to the asset everyone knows as Bitcoin: I am not talking about Bitcoin-BTC.

The branch of Bitcoin I support

When I talk about Bitcoin in the terms I’ve expressed above, I am referring to the IDEA proposed under that name. An idea with a historical context that still has supporters. That idea remains alive in Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Whether the Bitcoin-BTC maximalists like it or not, BCH is another branch of that project. It is the continuation of that vision and the way of thinking the early bitcoiners had.

A branch that in 2017 became an independent P2P network from Bitcoin-BTC (that is, a different cryptocurrency in terms of name) even knowing that this decision would mean having to rebuild much of the infrastructure and reconquer the adoption that had been achieved up to that point. But also a branch that values those classic ideas enough to put them into practice.

That is Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and I am convinced of these ideas. The vision of the Bitcoin Cash branch of the Bitcoin project is worthwhile to me, because I know that its approach to BCH as decentralized money that can be used worldwide as a digital means of payment is what humanity will need in the medium and long term.