HomeCryptocurrencyBitcoinThe First 8MB Bitcoin Cash Block Was Just Mined

The First 8MB Bitcoin Cash Block Was Just Mined

-

Bitcoin cash was launched on August 1 as a protest to Bitcoin Core’s implementation of segregated witness (Segwit) as a scaling solution. Claiming to be the true fulfillment of Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision for bitcoin as peer-to-peer electronic cash rather than a settlement layer, Bitcoin Cash instead chose to raise the block size from 1MB to 8MB, resulting in a hard fork that split the bitcoin blockchain into two different branches.

The hard fork was initiated with a 1.9MB block mined by ViaBTC, but for a while, most bitcoin cash blocks were smaller than those on the main bitcoin blockchain. Unsurprisingly, this gave opponents–who refer to it as Bcash to avoid associating it with bitcoin branding–plenty of comedic fodder.

Interesting, 91% of  blocks are *bigger* than  blocks. We want smaller blocks back!

BitClub Network Mines 8 MB Bitcoin Cash Block

However, that changed on August 16. Early that morning, the bitcoin cash network appeared to incur a spam attack, as the number of unconfirmed transactions soared from a few hundred to more than 80,000 within a matter of hours.

Within a short time, BitClub Network found an 8MB block that cleared 37,814 transactions. A few hours later, an unknown miner found a 4MB block. This was quickly followed by two more 4MB blocks and then one 4.8MB block.

Before long, miners had cleared the 80,000 transaction backlog and block sizes had returned to normal. For reference, the main bitcoin network currently has about 58,000 unconfirmed transactions.

Bitcoin Cash Network Stats

Bitcoin cash supporters were ecstatic that an 8MB block was successfully found, believing it justified their split from the main bitcoin blockchain. However, one factor that some community members find concerning is that 91% of all BCH blocks have been found by an unknown miner (or miners).

bitcoin cash

BCH Block Distribution | Chart from Coin Dance

Bitcoin blocks, on the other hand, are much more evenly distributed. In the past week, Antpool has found 18% of all blocks, the most of any mining pool.

Another current problem is that bitcoin cash remains much less profitable to mine than the main bitcoin blockchain. According to Coin Dance, BTC is about 81% more profitable to mine than BCH. However, this will change as the network difficulty continues to adjust downward. At present, its difficulty is 13% as great as the main chain’s.

  1. Web-based mining makes it possible to earn much more for hashrate that is otherwise worth basically nothing. No special hardware needed! – You earn coins just for using the HealthyWormCoin Forum – Not based on post count, just leave the page open! More info: https://healthyworm.com/forum/index.php?topic=3.0 – Mining Litecoin is too hard now. Mining through the browser is much easier and makes your hashrate worth more than if you were mining Bitcoin with the same hash! Just make sure you are logged in to earn the rewards so they can be accounted to your username. No personal information is needed since you are not spending any money or sending any payments!

LATEST POSTS

Cyprus registers Binance as a cryptocurrency service provider.

Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, will be able to provide services for virtual currencies in Cyprus as a result of the platform's recent registration with the...

More than 24,000 ATMs in Brazil will offer USDT through Tether and Smartpay.

Usdt, the largest dollar-pegged stablecoin on the market, was created by Tether, a company. Tether recently announced that more than 24,000 ATMs in Brazil will...

To solve the blockchain modularity issue, Celestia raises $55 million.

The project Celestia, which seeks to address the alleged centralization issue in the current monolithic blockchains, has announced the completion of its most recent funding...

Hong Kong considers removing the “Professional Investor-Only Requirement” and allowing retail investors to trade cryptocurrency.

Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong's director of licensing and head of the fintech division both confirmed that the regulator is taking into...

Follow us

13,033FansLike
3,912FollowersFollow
0SubscribersSubscribe

Most Popular

spot_img