When the previous halving in Bitcoin occurred in 2016, Bitcoin Cash and BSV did not exist. Both BCH and BSV could lose a large number of miners after their next halving.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin Cash Satoshi’s Vision (BSV) will undergo their first halving between April 8th and 10th, 2020, respectively. This event directly impacts the unions of miners of these cryptocurrencies. Regarding Bitcoin (BTC) forks, these events could also affect the mining of the first cryptocurrency.

It is important to note that Bitcoin Cash and BSV are the results of hard forks of the Bitcoin code but, in the case of BSV, it comes directly from Bitcoin Cash. However, the blockchains of both forks and that of Bitcoin, the original cryptocurrency, share a large part of their history. Furthermore, BCH and BSV also retained the mining algorithm, block production time, and height of each Bitcoin halving. All this allows a certain correlation in what happens with these cryptocurrencies, especially in the area of mining.

Bitcoin Cash was born in August 2017, a little over a year after Bitcoin’s second halving. Currently, the BCH blockchain has 629,282 mined blocks and its first halving would occur on April 8th. Shortly after, between April 9th and 10th, the BSV halving would take place. The blockchain of this cryptocurrency, born in mid-November 2018, has 629,073 blocks mined until now.

The same as in Bitcoin, the halving of Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Cash Satoshi’s Vision will occur at the height of block 630,000 of their chain. However, it will take another month to happen in BTC as block production has flowed differently in this chain.

Fears of Halving

Bitcoin Cash and BSV halving events will occur almost simultaneously, one month before Bitcoin (BTC), which may be causing some concern in the BCH and BSV community. The reason is that, after the halving of these cryptocurrencies, the mining of BTC may be more profitable. This could lead to a massive migration of miners to Bitcoin, which would reduce the hash rate of BCH and BSV dramatically.

According to a recent newsletter by analyst firm Arcane Research, there will not be an exodus of miners if one of the following scenarios occurs. One would be a significant increase in the price of BCH and BSV in the market or the commissions that miners earn. The other would be a dramatic drop in their hash rate and mining difficulty. However, in this second possible case, the remedy could be worse than the disease. A very low hash rate would lower the costs for the performance of a 51% attack against the BCH and BSV networks.

Effects of BCH and BSV Halving on Bitcoin

Twitter and Reddit, among other social networks, are debating the possible impact of the anticipated halving of BCH and BSV on Bitcoin. While many consider that it will not affect the mother cryptocurrency, others believe that it will. These events are unlikely to change the price of BTC, but they could slightly affect Bitcoin mining.

The potential migration of miners from BCH and BSV to Bitcoin could lead to an increase in the hash rate of the latter. A sudden increase in hash rate would affect block production time and, consequently, mining difficulty setting. Given that BSV and BCH only hold 5% of mining power together, BTC mining is unlikely to change dramatically after the halving of Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Cash Satoshi’s View.

By Willmen Blanco

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