As participants on the Bitcoin Cash network continue to disagree on which changes would be made to the network’s underlying software, the community could likely witness a hardfork or split later this year.
Headed by Amaury Sechet and backed by former Bitmain CEO Jihan Wu, who supposedly holds more than a million BCH coins, the ABC proponents are still determined to continue its network implementation ahead of BCHN proposal come November.
Sechet recently revealed plans of the BCH upgrade roadmap, which majorly aligns with his ABC proposal of implementing an upgraded version of the Infrastructure Funding Plan (IFP) algorithm. The key requirement under the algorithm is that miners donate 12.5 percent of all block rewards to the development of Bitcoin Cash.
The IFP v1.0 was voted against by the network’s miners in February as concerns over miner’s security and increased volatility were raised at the time.
BCH miners argued that Sechet’s group did not communicate with them to determine a workable solution favorable to all participants of the network. They believe ABC’s advocacy has steadily created a massive divide between the parties via the IFP proposal.
However, in a recent move to unite both the ABC and the BCHN proponents, Sechet outlined in his Medium post that the planned BCH upgrade will feature two significant changes, such as the implementation of the aserti3–2d (ASERT) algorithm and an upgraded IFP V2.0 in the form of the ‘Coinbase Rule.’
The proposed ASERT algorithm was made by one of the influential members of the BCHN camp, Jonathan Toomim.
Toomim’s ASERT proposal would be implemented ahead of the controversial Grasberg algorithm, which was earlier backed by Sechet.
Not satisfied with Sechet’s compromise, a group of Bitcoin Cash miners said they believe the failure experienced in ABC IFP V1.0 could still be repeated in the upgraded version and has decided to switch to BCHN completely.
Why Bitcoin Cash (BCH) value may Crash if the network splits
Since the move made by Sechet to unite the warring parties does not seem enough to BCH miners, the network may eventually split, and this could spell at least a temporary price fall for the BCH coin.
This is because a large amount of BCH up to more than one million (appr. $315,000,000) is in Sechet’s camp possession, especially Wu, who could likely dump the coins to raise funds to sponsor the BCH’s ABC vision and woo developers or miners to support the project.
Such action will inevitably cause a sharp crash in the BCH coin price when the market is bearish. However, if they choose to offload the more than one million BCH coins when the market is bullish, its value would not be majorly affected as the market would absorb them and avert any imminent danger for the coin’s value.
Time will now tell whether both warring BCH camps will reach a compromise anytime before the November upgrade. A failure to do so will likely result in BCH price finding its way well below the press time market cap of $5.9 billion and a price of $315.
It is popularly known that the Bitcoin Cash split that birthed BitcoinSV in November 2018, contributed to the crypto market bottom, and there’s no telling how adversely BCH, or maybe the entire crypto market would react to another high-profile chain split.
