What Value Does Bitcoin Cash have?
The success of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) demonstrates that older cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) have little future in their present forms.
Currently, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is the fourth most popular cryptocurrency according to our friends at CoinMarketCap. Notably, BCH had a Coin Price of $423.71, a Market Capitalization of $7.386 billion, and a 24-Hour Market Volume of $301.329 million on 31 October 2018. Bitcoin Cash achieved those numbers on a circulating supply of 17.427 million BCH and a Maximum supply 21 million BCH.
The numbers reveal there is a lot of interest in Bitcoin Cash, but what is it. Moreover, why is BCH’s Coin Price so high right now?
is Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has a High Transaction Volume?
The best way to think of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is as an improved version of Bitcoin (BTC).
To explain, Bitcoin has a lot of limitations that make it hard for anybody but geeks to use it. For example, How Much estimates that plain Bitcoin only processes seven transactions a second (TPS). Therefore, only seven people could send Bitcoin payments at once if How Much is correct.
Bitcoin’s low TPS is a perfect example of the greatest limitation to cryptocurrencies the Great Blockhain Scalability Problem. To explain the encryption that makes cryptocurrency and the blockchain secure limits speed and capacity.
Bitcoin Cash tries to solve with that with a higher TPS volume. In detail, How Much gives BCH a TPS volume of 60. Thus, Bitcoin Cash’s TPS volume is higher than those of Litecoin (TLC), Dash (DASH), and Ether (ETH).
For the record, How Much estimates Litecoin’s volume at 56 transactions a second. In addition, How Much calculates Dash’s volume at 48 transactions a second and Ethereum’s volume at 20 transactions a second.
Is Ripple (XRP) better than Bitcoin Cash?
However, How Much claims Ripple (XRP) has a volume of 1,500 transactions a second. Hence, Ripple is the only cryptocurrency I know of capable of handling large volumes of transactions.
Not coincidently, Ripple is being adopted for commercial and banking purposes. For instance, Banco Santander (NYSE: SAN) is offering cross-border Ripple (XRP) payments in the United Kingdom.
In addition, several companies are using Ripple to send remittances to 40 countries. To clarify remittances are cross-border payments between individuals. By offering remittances, Ripple and its partners are trying to replace wire services like MoneyGram (NASDAQ: MGI) with simple peer-to-peer-payment (P2P) apps.
What is Bitcoin Cash (BCH) anyway?
Bitcoin Cash (BCH); like Ripple (XRP), is an attempt to combine a cryptocurrency with a peer-to-peer (P2P) electronic cash system.
Engineers design a P2P electronic cash system to be open-sourced and easy to use, unlike a cryptocurrency. Therefore, P2P electronic cash like BCH is perfect for mass-market use
Under those circumstances, they design BCH for ease of use, speed, and easy access rather than security. For example, BCH and Ripple use sidechains to bypass a lot Bitcoin’s security. In detail, a sidechain is a less encrypted shortcut between blockchains.
The drawback to Bitcoin Cash is that there are apparently no commercial uses of it occurring in the real world. For example, there is no sign BCH is being used for remittances.
Bitcoin Cash has a Marketing Problem
I suspect, Bitcoin Cash is not being widely adopted because of the suspicion the name Bitcoin raises. Many people probably avoid Bitcoin Cash because they associate it with criminals and the dark web.
Unfortunately, many people’s knowledge of cryptocurrency comes from hysterical news articles about criminals using Bitcoin on the darkweb. Hence, cryptocurrencies like Dash and Ripple are an easier sell to many users because they lack Bitcoin’s baggage. Thus, Bitcoin Cash might increase its use by wiping the Bitcoin name off its coins.
Changing the name could lower BCH’s Coin Price because Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency most observers are familiar with. Therefore, the name Bitcoin is a double-edge sword for marketing.
Bitcoin has a lot of street cred with the geeks but a lousy reputation with everybody else. Under those circumstances, the developers could have to change Bitcoin Cash’s name to reach a commercial market.
Is Bitcoin Cash a Good Cryptocurrency?
If the claims at the Bitcoin Cash website are true, there is a lot of good technology behind BCH.
For instance, Bitcoin Cash supposedly offers a transaction fee of 1¢. Comparatively, the average Bitcoin (BTC) transaction fee was 36.4¢ on 27 October 2018, BitInfo Charts estimates. Hence, BTC’s processing fee could be one 36th that of Bitcoin’s which is competitive.
Additionally, Bitcoin Cash claims its payment platform will not hit merchants with chargebacks. To explain, a chargeback is the return of funds to a customer by a payment process. Markedly, many processors make merchants eat chargebacks.
Who is Using Bitcoin Cash?
I think the low fees and lack of chargebacks will have wide appeal to merchants if they can divorce them from the Bitcoin name.
The problem with Bitcoin Cash is that there is no evidence any brick and merchants are using it. For instance, there is no mention of point-of-sale (POS) terminals at the BCH website.
The POS is a device that allows a merchant to charge transactions directly to a payment platform. DASH and Pundi X (PUNDI) are deploying POS solutions for their cryptocurrencies.
To achieve wide adoption, BCH will need a POS. A POS solution is important because it will allow people to use BCH to buy things like food from brick and mortar stores.
Is Bitcoin Cash a Good cryptocurrency?
However, Bitcoin Cash has a wide variety of users, some of whom will undoubtedly deploy POS devices. I think the future of cryptocurrency will be a POS that accepts several altcoins.
Under those circumstances, there will be a large market for BCH – if POS devices accept it. I predict there will be a demand for Bitcoin Cash because of its high coin price.
The biggest advantage to Bitcoin Cash is its limited Total Supply (21 million BCH). Theoretically, the limited supply will keep values high which could increase demand.
Despite that advantage, Bitcoin Cash’s current value is purely speculative. I would advise speculators to stay away from Bitcoin Cash (BCH) until they document widespread real world use.
