Cointelegraph reported that not even Bitmain, the original creator of Bitcoin Cash, is sure whether they will support the Bitcoin Cash hard fork or not.
If you were worried about the possible coming HF on August 1st, this should at least give you some reassurance that even if it happens it isn't much to be worried about, at least at first.
Even the main idea men behind it are not sure they want to go through with it.
Instead Bitmain said that creating Bitcoin Cash was only done as a precautionary measure in case BIP 148 activated. Well, BIP 148 has been avoided so Bitmain is saying that they are not sure if Bitcoin Cash is even a good idea.
What is Bitcoin Cash?
Bitcoin Cash is a hard fork that is being developed and launched by a few mining pools in response to the SegWit implementation on the main chain.
The goal of Bitcoin cash is to mine 8 MB blocks, which would be 8 times larger than that of Bitcoin, and to also maintain a network without using the SegWit fix.
SegWit is seen as a temporary band-aid by some and somewhat goes against some of the core principles of what makes Bitcoin, Bitcoin.
SegWit is likely to increase the block size to 2 MB, with the possibility of holding almost 4 MB of transactions in the most optimistic case.
Even then, Bitcoin cash blocks would still be 2-4 times larger than even Bitcoin with SegWit activated.
Is there reason to be concerned?
Yes and No.
It is becoming clear that many are not recognizing Bitcoin Cash as an official part of Bitcoin but instead are classifying it as a separate coin.
Specifically, Coinbase has come out and said that it does not intend to interact with the Bitcoin Cash blockchain.
That is a big deal as Coinbase is currently the largest wallet operator and one of the largest exchange operators of Bitcoin.
Slush Pool also had this to say:
"We want to let you know, that we currently have no plans to support the emerging Bitcoin hard fork called Bitcoin Cash (BCC) scheduled for August 1st. As for now, we do not see a real demand from miners and the costs of creating and maintaining a separate Bitcoin Cash infrastructure would be too high."
That is great news, but there is one section that really sticks out to me...
"As for now..."
Even if Bitcoin Cash doesn't gain a lot of traction at first, the 8 MB block size is going to be very alluring as Bitcoin attempts to scale.
Soon the 2 MB limit will become a problem again and we will be back to the drawing board.
At that point the creators of Bitcoin Cash are thinking people will slowly start to migrate over to Bitcoin Cash.
In Conclusion...
While it might not really be a big deal at first, there is always the chance that people start to flock to that chain in the future when scaling becomes an issue yet again.
There is also the possibility that Bitcoin Cash dies on the vine long before the 2 MB block limit becomes an issue again with Bitcoin, which would mean an entirely new proposal would have to come about at that time to solve the new scaling issues...
Either way, it is an interesting time to be alive.
Stay informed my friends!
Sources:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/slush-pool-will-not-support-bitcoin-cash-in-august-1-hard-fork
Image Sources:
http://www.investopedia.com/news/bitcoins-price-falls-after-group-says-it-will-activate-hard-fork/
https://www.betcoin.ag/bitcoin-hard-fork-approaching-what-are-benefits
