Kelly Robertson
We are in the midst of the Bitcoin fork craze. After Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Diamond and even Bitcoin God, we have another variant joining the ride – Bitcoin Cash Plus.
Don’t let the name fool you, it has less to do with Bitcoin Cash; it will fork from the “regular” Bitcoin chain, and not its most successful variant to date (for those missing out on the news, Bitcoin Cash has been growing like crazy lately).
1. The date
The Bitcoin Cash Plus mainnet is set to launch around January 2nd, 2018 with the idea to fulfill “the original promise of Bitcoin” as Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash; or as they call it a “sound money accessible to the whole world.”
As a result of this fork, all Bitcoin holders as of block 501,407 will also become owners of Bitcoin Cash Plus.
2. Everyone will be able to mine Bitcoin Cash Plus
The new cryptocurrency will adopt a Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm, Equihash, which cannot be run faster on the specialty equipment used for Bitcoin mining (ASIC miners). This in turn gives ordinary users a fair opportunity to mine with their GPUs.
For what it matters, Bitcoin Gold and many other cryptocurrencies use the same (Equihash) algorithm.
3. Scalable, fast and secure
Bitcoin Cash Plus will run on a blockchain with an adjustable block size, and an increased default of 8MB, like the “regular” Bitcoin Cash. Also, the cryptocurrency will enable transactions in seconds, and confirmations in minutes.
In addition, a new SigHash type will provide replay protection, improved hardware wallet security, and elimination of the quadratic hashing problem.
4. Many things we still don’t know
We have no idea which exchanges and wallets will support the new cryptocurrency. Also, there is no information about nodes that will keep it alive; and the same goes for the team behind this effort.
You can, however, keep up with Bitcoin Cash Plus from its Facebook and Twitter profiles. Or, if you’re a developer, see what they’re cooking on Github.
Does Bitcoin Cash Plus has a future?
It is hard to tell. Right now, we can’t be 100 percent sure this fork will actually happen. The official website doesn’t list a single exchange that has decided to support the new cryptocurrency, but something tells us that the “free money” argument will triumph at the end.
That being said, there are tech-based arguments working in Bitcoin Cash Plus’ favor, as it is trying to combine the best of “regular” Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash worlds. Then again, we have seen something similar in other recent Bitcoin forks, so does this one has anything new that makes it a worthy contender. Again, it is hard to say, but we must add that we were also skeptical about Bitcoin Gold, and were proven wrong.
So make sure to keep an eye on this one, if for no other reason, than to get the free tokens. That’s presuming you already own Bitcoin, of course.
