Bitcoin Cash ABC BCHA price

What Is Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHA)?

Bitcoin Cash ABC is a blockchain and cryptocurrency created on Nov. 15, 2020, as a result of a hard fork in the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) blockchain that split the original chain into two new chains, provisionally called "Bitcoin Cash ABC" and "Bitcoin Cash Node." The latter retained the existing Bitcoin Cash name and ticker, while at the time of the fork, Bitcoin Cash ABC had not yet announced new branding.

Bitcoin Cash ABC is based on the Bitcoin Cash protocol, which is itself a fork of the original Bitcoin (BTC) protocol. It is focused on providing a fast, highly scalable, global cryptocurrency in a manner that is sustainable in the long term.

Who Are the Founders of Bitcoin Cash ABC?

Bitcoin Cash ABC was first announced in 2017 by Amaury Séchet, also known as "Deadalnix," as a software solution for operating a Bitcoin Cash full node. Séchet was highly active in the development of Bitcoin Cash, leading its initial fork away from Bitcoin in August 2017, its continuation after Bitcoin SV (BSV) was forked from it in November 2018, and its most recent fork from Bitcoin Cash in November 2020. As lead developer of Bitcoin Cash ABC, which provided Bitcoin Cash network infrastructure, he was responsible for driving much of the development of Bitcoin Cash.

Séchet first became involved with Bitcoin in 2011, later deciding to diverge from it due to what he believed was its inability to sufficiently scale. Prior to working on Bitcoin Cash ABC, he was a software engineer at Facebook, was involved in the LLMV language compiler project, and was lead developer for Stupid D Compiler, a D compiler commonly known as SDC. He previously worked with another Bitcoin Cash node software, Bitcoin Unlimited, which he left in May 2019.

What Makes Bitcoin Cash ABC Unique?

As a fork of Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Cash ABC retains many of the same characteristics. Its main goal is to create money that is "usable by everyone in the world" and that will "dramatically increase human freedom and prosperity." It uses a larger block size than Bitcoin as a way to increase transaction times and scalability.

Bitcoin Cash ABC introduced two main changes to its protocol that differentiate it from Bitcoin Cash: a new mining difficulty adjustment algorithm known as Aserti3--2d, or ASERT, and a requirement that 8% of all newly minted BCHA be allocated to fund the further development of the network. The second change, known as the "coinbase rule," proved to be controversial and was a primary contributor to the fork. However, Séchet has argued that having a self-funding mechanism is in line with the original vision of Bitcoin.

Fifty percent of the BCHA raised through the coinbase rule goes to the development team to fund its continued operations and strategic initiatives, which include establishing adaptive block sizes, overhauling the mempool, hiring new staff and more. The remaining 50% goes to the Global Network Council, a governance system through which developers, miners and major token holders can vote on how the funds should be reinvested into the ecosystem.

Related Pages:

Learn more about Bitcoin Cash, the cryptocurrency from which Bitcoin Cash ABC was forked.

Learn more about Bitcoin SV, which itself was forked from the Bitcoin Cash blockchain.

Want more background? Read an in-depth analysis of what led up to the fork on Alexandria, CoinMarketCap's online educational resource.

Stay up to date on the latest blockchain and crypto developments with the CoinMarketCap Blog.

How Many Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHA) Coins Are There in Circulation?

Bitcoin Cash ABC has a fixed maximum supply of 21 million BCHA.

BCHA tokens were first introduced in November 2020 at the time of its fork from Bitcoin Cash. After the fork occurred, all BCH token holders automatically owned an equal amount of BCHA. This resulted in many exchanges --- including Binance, OKEx, Upbit, Kucoin and Houbi Global --- listing the token and airdropping BCHA into the wallets of BCH token holders.

New BCHA is introduced into circulation in form of block rewards through the blockchain's proof-of-work consensus and SHA-265 mining algorithms. Eight percent of all block rewards are reserved for network and ecosystem development, while the remaining 92% is distributed to miners. Every 210,000 blocks, the blockchain undergoes a halving, which reduces the block reward by 50%.

How Is the Bitcoin Cash ABC Network Secured?

The Bitcoin Cash ABC network is secured using a proof-of-work consensus algorithm --- the same as is used by Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin. At least 51% of all full nodes in the network must agree that a transaction is valid in order for it to be posted, and new blocks are added to the blockchain through the mining process, in which users compete among one another to solve complex, energy-intensive problems under a SHA-265 mining algorithm.

In addition, Bitcoin Cash ABC founder Séchet has argued that by using a self-funding revenue model under the coinbase rule, the security of the network is further enhanced, as now miners and developers alike are incentivized to protect the network because their income depends on it. Upon achieving a stable revenue stream, Bitcoin Cash ABC has stated it intends to hire more staff to be able to better address security vulnerabilities.

Where Can You Buy Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHA)?

BCHA is available to purchase on exchanges such as Binance, Upbit, CoinEx and MXC.COM, among others. It can be traded against fiat currencies such as the South Korean won, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, and stablecoins such as Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD).

All those who held BCH at the time of the fork automatically own an equal amount of BCHA as well.

Are you interested in buying BCHA or other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin? CoinMarketCap has a simple, step-by-step guide to teach you all about crypto and how to buy your first coins.