The 2018 split that divided the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem
In short: What happens when a cryptocurrency undergoes a civil war? In November 2018, a fundamental disagreement over block size limits triggered a hard fork, creating Bitcoin Satoshi Vision and leaving the market fractured between two competing visions of the blockchain's future.
The emergence of Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV) was the result of a deep schism within the Bitcoin Cash community. In November 2018, two rival factions engaged in what was described as a 'civil war' over the protocol's technical direction. One group, supported by figures such as Roger Ver and Jihan Wu of Bitmain, advocated for the Bitcoin ABC software, which proposed a 32 MB block size cap. The opposing camp, led by Craig Steven Wright and Calvin Ayre, pushed for Bitcoin SV, a version designed to expand the block size limit significantly to 128 MB.
This technical divergence had immediate financial consequences. On 14 November 2018, the original Bitcoin Cash was trading at approximately $425.01. Following the hard fork on 15 November, the market split: Bitcoin Cash traded at roughly $289, while the newly formed Bitcoin SV stood at about $96.50. The volatility was accompanied by intense social conflict, particularly regarding the identity of Bitcoin's creator. Craig Wright has claimed since 2015 to be Satoshi Nakamoto, a claim that sparked an online feud in April 2019 and eventually led the exchange Binance to delist Bitcoin SV from its platform.
The network's stability has also faced severe technical challenges. In 2021, Bitcoin SV experienced a series of 51% attacks in June, July, and August. These attacks occur when miners control more than half of a network's computing power, enabling them to prevent transaction confirmations and attempt double-spending. While some analysts noted the immediate impact on price action appeared negligible, the attacks raised significant concerns regarding long-term faith in the network. A legal turning point occurred in March 2024, as British High Court judge Mr Justice James Mellor decided that Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Bitcoin Satoshi Vision
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