The SV in Bitcoin SV stands for Satoshi’s vision. It is the latest offshoot from a Bitcoin Cash hard fork that happened towards the end of 2018.
This piece explores the origins and circumstances that led to Bitcoin SV existence and the benefits its users enjoy.
Bitcoin SV Origins
It wasn’t until when an intended upgrade to bitcoin cash was imminent when Bitcoin SV was introduced. When developer Amaury Sechet published a whitepaper detailing the upgrade to BCH codebases, it led to a dispute. A particular update feature brought contention among the BCH community. Its Members were divided on the issue and couldn’t reach a mutual agreement. They therefore agreed to disagree, a split was inevitable.
The feature in contention was an upgrade designed to enable faster transactions and thus a solution to the scaling challenge that Bitcoin cash was experiencing. So why split if the upgrade was a good thing?
Well, factions of the community believed the planned upgrade would favor large mining groups. Furthermore, the fact that the feature upgrade was receiving support from large mining groups like Bitmain seemed to fan this believe.
The inevitable happened. Bitcoin SV was briefly introduced before the November due date when the upgrade was due. The two groups in contention were Bitcoin ABC and Bitcoin SV. Bitcoin ABC supported the intended upgrade and had much of its developer base at BTC. On the other hand, Bitcoin SV was led by Craig Wright, the self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto.
Satoshi’s Vision And The Aftermath
Craig and his team perceived the intended upgrade as a deviation from Satoshi Nakamoto’s original design and intention of Bitcoin. The irony is, the circumstances that led to the BCH split were reminiscent of the events that led to the original Bitcoin split that gave birth to Bitcoin cash.
The effect of the split had significant events on the large crypto community. The two sides fought over the control of the larger percentage of hashrate in order to establish themselves as the real Bitcoin cash. Switching of power let to an effect on the price of Bitcoin and the entire digital asset market.
Days before November 15, a number of crypto exchanges halted BCH trading in their platform in a bid to protect themselves and their customers from any fall back that would happen as a result of the split.
The wait and see approach was vital for the exchanges in that when everything normalized, the exchange would now support the camp that won. Bitcoin ABC won and is the Bitcoin cash of today.
Benefits Of Bitcoin SV
By bringing back the values and technology of Satoshi’s dream, Bitcoin SV aims at total decentralization, the use of crypto as a payment of trade method and elevation of the network’s capacity.
Scale is one of Bitcoin SV’ important features. BSV block size of 128MB is four times that of BCH which is only 32 MB. Block size allows for more transactions to be done on the network.
Another benefit of Bitcoin SV is low transaction costs. Its fast, affordable and large scale transaction play a huge part in Bitcoin SV success.
In order to realize Satoshi’s dream, there was need for network development works. Bitcoin SV has undergone more developments in its network than any other Bitcoin network.