Bitcoin Cash ABC cryptocurrency, or eCash: a fork of the fork

Later, a civil war started among the "splitters" - Bitcoin Cash split into Bitcoin Cash ABC and Bitcoin Cash SV.

What is Bitcoin Cash ABC?

It's worth noting right away to avoid confusion that in 2021, this cryptocurrency changed its name and is now known as eCash (XEC).

ABC is a direct continuation of Bitcoin Cash, an offshoot of the original bitcoin, which has operated since 1 August 2017. The stumbling block was the issue of increasing the block size on the bitcoin network, which was seen as a way to speed up the network. Bitcoin Cash was created by proponents of increasing the block size from 1MB to 8MB, who disagreed with the decision of most bitcoin miners to leave the block size unchanged. And in May 2018, the block size was increased again to 32 MB.

In autumn 2018, the situation was repeated - now Bitcoin Cash had its dissenters who insisted on increasing the block to 128 MB. And on 15 November, the "fork of the fork" took place - Bitcoin Cash split into the more conservative Bitcoin ABC and radical Bitcoin SV (Satoshi Version).

Uncertainty

Unfortunately, to say that Bitcoin Cash ABC is just the same BCH in a different wrapper is impossible. The BCABC team has been feverishly implementing new technical solutions since the branching, focusing not so much on the current needs of the network but on the need to counter BCSV. Thus, in just one week, the network's transaction processing rules changed twice.

Both "forks of the fork" teams were on a knife-edge. They continued the tradition of the prototype - the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) team led by Roger Ver had previously noted the attacks on Bitcoin Core in the media space.

Many exchanges had to choose which variant to support and add to their listings. In the end, some added both - users can trade whichever coin is closer to them.

Is the battle lost?

Initially, it was still being determined which fork would ultimately succeed. For a while, BCABC won the confrontation by a vast margin. In particular, it won the "hashrate war" - most miners initially supported this project, ensuring its stable operation and protection from double-spending attacks.

After more than four years, we can assess the situation with a cold eye and recognise that Bitcoin SV (BSV) rather won the battle:

• XEC exchange rate — $0.00002317, BSV — $31.08
• XEC capitalisation — $445,053,388, BSV — $599,804,634
• Daily trading volume of XEC — $6,015,459, BSV — $25,599,160

However, for example, the largest crypto exchange Binance only supports XEC of these two coins for trading.

Rebranding 2021

In July 2021, Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHA) was renamed eCash (XEC). But it wasn't just the name that changed; the project was relaunched. The relaunch allowed the integration of the Proof-of-stake Avalanche consensus layer, introducing steaking and significantly increasing transaction speeds.

eCash also reduced the number of decimal places from eight to two. With the update, all users' BCHA coins were converted to XEC at 1:1.

The project maintains compatibility with EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine), signalling a desire to engage with the DeFi sector.

Five main objectives of the project have been formulated:

• ensuring the anonymity of transactions;
• their immutability;
• low cost of transactions;
• making payments in less than three seconds;
• infrastructure maintenance.

Thus, the Bitcoin Cash ABC project has found a new life and will continue to develop without any connection to its ancestor.