The Bitcoin Cash price has had little negative volatility in recent times, just like Bitcoin itself and Ethereum. In times like these, the question arises: why don’t we just use Bitcoin Cash?
Here are five reasons that I’m considering adopting Bitcoin Cash as my cryptocurrency of choice for everyday usage.
1. Low Fees, Empty Blocks
The average transaction fee on Bitcoin Cash is less than a penny. Despite having large blocks, most of the blocks are relatively empty by comparison to Bitcoin. If you have a lot of inputs, your transaction fee will be higher, of course. But the cost of a kilobyte is a penny, whereas the average cost of my last 10 transactions using the flagship cryptocurrency was between 7 and 9 cents. These were well-formulated transactions, crafted by Coinomi wallet.
2. Bitcoin Developers Favor Making Blocks Even Smaller
I agree with @LukeDashjr that the block size should be smaller. I feel more confidence to say it now that we have LN making strides. I’ll run the soft fork.
— John Carvalho (@BitcoinErrorLog) February 10, 2019
There is now increasing chatter in the Bitcoin community about decreasing the size of blocks in order to stimulate usage of networks like Lightning Network. I’m sorry, but artificial scarcity isn’t the same as real scarcity. The battle for the block size increase is over, and two new chains, each with their own markets and communities, arose from the wreckage. That was probably going to happen no matter what, but it’s questionable whether or not those communities would have been viable or not.
Some of us prefer to transact directly on-chain, the way we always have. Call me old-fashioned, but I simply don’t use Bitcoin enough to worry about setting up payment channels or figuring out how to use some third-party software. I’m sure the day will come that it will be a necessity, regardless of whether or not block sizes are reduced. I would assume most wallets, like Coinomi, will have adapted to the changing times by then.
3. You Can Spend Your BCH and Save Your BTC
Deciding to use BCH doesn’t mean you have to sell your BTC. | Source: Shutterstock
Look, let’s not get off subject. There’s a viable alternative chain called Bitcoin Cash. I have a friend who’s never even redeemed his Bitcoin Cash yet. Just hasn’t had any interest in doing it, but he has a lot of pre-fork UTXOs on that chain. Now we’re at a time where there’s real competition for fees on Bitcoin. For example, if you’re going to move coins between crypto exchanges, the fee for making a quick conversion to Bitcoin Cash might be less than the BTC withdrawal fee. The BCH withdrawal fee is generally lower, as well. So you could save money, and once you’re there, get back into Bitcoin if that’s what you’re trying to do.
4. Bitcoin Cash is Widely Accepted
And, of course, Bitcoin Cash is accepted most everywhere that Bitcoin is. BitPay and most of its alternatives support it. You can’t say the same for Bitcoin SV, which has continued to lose value while Bitcoin Cash has held steady at about 200% of its per-token price. That said, I’m not prepared to make remarks on the long-term proposition of BSV. I should disclose that I’ve taken the opportunity to gather a little extra, in case the market surprises us.
5. Maximalism is so Middle School
The crypto community should tone down the tribalism. | Source: Shutterstock
I’m not a maximalist on anything. I see those viewpoints as not only childish but toxic. They push newcomers away. The last thing you want to get involved in when joining a new community is “true Scotsman” arguments. I hold all three versions of Bitcoin and consider them almost equally valid. Clearly, there’s more liquidity for BTC and BCH, but that’s not the only thing that matters. Bitcoin SV makes up for this in a really interesting developer community. People who shrug off market negativity and continue to produce interesting software. That’s what keeps me cautiously positive as regards BSV.
But back to the question. If prices are going to be this stable, why do we bother using Bitcoin currently? The cryptocurrency’s developers actually don’t want us transacting on-chain currently. They want on-chain transactions reserved for Lightning nodes, or something. Well, that’s fine. Why transact there at all, if there’s nothing to lose by going with Bitcoin Cash for most peer-to-peer and other types of transactions?
It’s only a question, something I’m considering for personal use. I rarely use Bitcoin to buy altcoins. Instead, I use altcoins to buy altcoins. I have an account that pays a fair amount of Dogecoin on a semi-regular basis, and I take the DOGE and put it into Ethereum or BCH/BSV. Dogecoin is fun to gamble with, but it’s not worth any effort to hold, for me. It’s fun to tip and gamble. And it’s useful to convert to altcoins I like.
So, what do you think, user? Is there really any risk right now in buying some Bitcoin Cash and using it instead of Bitcoin for many types of transactions? From a market perspective, we’ve likely seen the bottom on it, anyway. Thus far my speculations on it have yielded meager profits.
Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not represent those of, nor should they be attributed to, CCN.
Featured Image from Shutterstock
