A lot has changed in the cryptocurrency space, and things are entirely different than they were when bitcoin was launched by its anonymous creator back in 2009. One of these changes has affected the entire ecosystem, as the bitcoin scaling debate has caused significant strife between bitcoin proponents.
This summer on August 1 the bitcoin cash fork took place, but fundamental differences between bitcoiners remain, and there is still a fierce debate concerning the upcoming hard fork(s). At Bitcoin.com we have decided to clarify our position on the naming of each chain associated with the original protocol design created by Satoshi Nakamoto based on technical associations.
At present, there are two blockchains that have derived from the original bitcoin protocol design released to the world in January of 2009. On August 1 the bitcoin cash blockchain split away from the network, due to a long and ongoing debate concerning the technology’s key principles.
Since the bitcoin cash network started, the foundations of each chain have shown underlying differences. For instance, the bitcoin cash chain did not adopt the controversial Segregated Witness (Segwit) protocol. The protocol had also increased the base block size limit to 8MB, and the development team removed the tendentious Replace-by-Fee (RBF) protocol as well.
The bitcoin cash chain operates now with significantly lower fees than its sister chain, and confirmation times are faster with more room for transactions.
The other chain which we will refer to as “Segwit Core” has adopted Segwit and continued to utilize RBF. Further, the chain still has problematic issues with fees and network congestion as the Segwit protocol change hasn’t shown much difference.
At the moment this chain is called BTC, but the network is expecting another fork this November that may change that moniker, if “Segwit Core” survives. As stated above, the scaling debate’s flames did not stop when bitcoin cash split away. There is now escalated drama between Core supporters and Segwit2x supporters.
Segwit2x is a protocol that has also adopted Segwit and RBF but aims to raise the block size limit from 1MB to 2MB. Additionally, there is another fork this October called bitcoin gold that plans to change the consensus mechanism, proof-of-work, into a GPU mineable algorithm called Equihash. The bitcoin gold fork will also have Segwit implemented, and RBF as well, alongside a large pre-mine for the founding developers.
With all the chaos and confusion concerning this summer’s fork and the forks approaching in the next few weeks, Bitcoin.com has decided to clarify how we will respectively name each chain and price ticker. We will be reverting to these symbols within our articles that mention price tickers, and certain bitcoin sister chains.
The Bitcoin Cash Chain: Ticker symbol will be “BCC.”
The Segwit Chain/Segwit1x: Ticker symbol is currently “BTC,” but our suggested is symbol “SW1,” post Segwit2x split.
Segwit2x (Planned Fork): Ticker symbol could be “BTC” (planned), but we suggest potentially “SW2” as this is no longer perceived as Bitcoin.
SegwitGold (Planned Fork): Ticker symbol suggestion is “SWG.”
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