Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a cryptocurrency created on August 1, 2017, when a group of Bitcoin users and developers split from Bitcoin to allow much larger blocks. The goal was to keep transaction fees low and payments fast, in line with Bitcoin's original description as "peer-to-peer electronic cash". Bitcoin Cash uses the same proof-of-work mining as Bitcoin and has the same maximum supply of 21 million coins, and since 2023 it has supported tokens and NFTs through CashTokens. BCH is supported in the Bitcoin.com Wallet.
Frequently Asked Questions about Bitcoin Cash
What is the main goal of Bitcoin Cash?
To remain true to the original vision of Bitcoin as "peer-to-peer electronic cash." BCH focuses on enabling fast, affordable payments that anyone can access.
How did Bitcoin Cash originate?
BCH was created on August 1, 2017, after years of debate over Bitcoin's scalability. Supporters of larger blocks initiated a hard fork to maintain low fees and high throughput.
Bitcoin Cash is a decentralized, open-source project maintained by multiple independent development teams and supported globally by entrepreneurs, developers, miners, and users. Roger Ver, an early Bitcoin investor, has long been one of its most vocal advocates.
What consensus mechanism does BCH use?
Bitcoin Cash uses Proof-of-Work (PoW) with the SHA-256 mining algorithm.
What is the supply of Bitcoin Cash?
The maximum supply is 21 million BCH, the same as Bitcoin. More than 19 million BCH are already in circulation, and the reward for mining a block halves roughly every four years, most recently in April 2024.
Can Bitcoin Cash be used for everyday payments?
Yes. Fees on Bitcoin Cash are typically a fraction of a cent, which makes it practical for small, everyday payments, and merchants around the world accept it directly or through payment processors.
What are CashTokens?
CashTokens, launched in 2023, allow BCH to support fungible tokens, NFTs, and on-chain applications while remaining scalable and efficient.
What privacy tools exist for BCH users?
CashFusion is the main privacy tool for BCH. It combines transactions from many users so that it is harder to trace where coins came from, and it is built into wallets such as Electron Cash.
Can I mine Bitcoin Cash?
Yes. BCH can be mined using SHA-256 ASIC hardware, similar to Bitcoin.
What is the future of Bitcoin Cash?
The roadmap focuses on global payments, scalability, privacy, and smart contract functionality through CashTokens. The network upgrades once a year, each May, and development remains active across multiple independent teams.
How is Bitcoin Cash different from Bitcoin?
Both share the same history up to August 2017, the same SHA-256 mining and the same 21 million coin limit. The difference is how they scale: Bitcoin keeps blocks small and relies on layers such as the Lightning Network for cheap payments, while Bitcoin Cash raises the block size on the main chain so everyday transactions stay cheap. Since 2024 its block size limit adjusts automatically with demand.
What is the difference between Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV?
Bitcoin SV split from Bitcoin Cash in November 2018 after a disagreement over the network's direction. The two are now separate cryptocurrencies with their own blockchains, communities and prices.
What is Bitcoin Cash (BCH)?
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a decentralized, fast, and low-fee peer-to-peer electronic cash system created to make everyday digital payments simple and accessible. This guide explains how it works, why it was created, and why BCH still matters in 2026.
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Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a decentralized, peer-to-peer electronic cash system designed to make sending and receiving money fast, inexpensive, and globally accessible. Launched in 2017 as a hard fork of Bitcoin, it preserves Bitcoin’s fixed supply and Proof-of-Work security while scaling throughput directly on-chain to support everyday payments - from international remittances to retail purchases to micro-transactions.
To start using Bitcoin Cash today, download the Bitcoin.com Wallet app - a secure, user-friendly self-custodial wallet for storing, sending, and accepting BCH worldwide.
Overview
Bitcoin Cash launched on August 1, 2017, as a hard fork of the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain. The split was the result of a long-running disagreement within the Bitcoin community about how the network should scale. One side supported a path centered on small blocks + + off-chain solutions (Lightning Network). The other believed Bitcoin should scale on-chain, directly increasing block capacity to allow higher throughput and lower fees.
Supporters of the on-chain approach initiated a chain split, giving rise to Bitcoin Cash, a network designed to maintain Bitcoin’s original purpose as outlined in the 2008 whitepaper:
“A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash.”
Since launch, BCH has continued to evolve, adding technologies such as CashTokens, CashFusion, CashShuffle, and efficiency improvements that keep the network fast, affordable, and reliable.
Today, Bitcoin Cash is widely used for payments, remittances, merchant transactions, and new applications built directly on its chain.
Why Bitcoin Cash Was Created
The Bitcoin Cash fork happened because of a fundamental question:
Should Bitcoin scale directly on-chain?
From 2015 to 2017, Bitcoin’s limited block size (1 MB) caused:
Some developers, entrepreneurs, and early Bitcoin advocates - including Roger Ver, one of the earliest investors and evangelists of Bitcoin - supported increasing block capacity to keep Bitcoin fast and inexpensive to use.
When consensus was not reached, the community split.
BCH adopted larger blocks, enabling far more on-chain transaction throughput.
Beyond technical scalability, Bitcoin Cash was created around the idea that money should empower individuals directly. By enabling people to store and exchange value without reliance on centralized institutions, Bitcoin Cash is designed to support financial autonomy, censorship resistance, and global economic participation on an open, permissionless network.
How Bitcoin Cash Works
Blockchain Architecture
Bitcoin Cash uses the same fundamental architecture as Bitcoin:
These parameters preserve Bitcoin’s monetary properties while enabling BCH to follow a different path in terms of scaling.
Block Size and Throughput
The defining feature of BCH is its 32 MB block size limit, far larger than Bitcoin’s ~1 MB base block.
Larger blocks mean:
More transactions per block
Lower fees, even during high demand
Faster confirmations
Higher throughput (hundreds of transactions per second in practice)
This allows BCH to function as everyday digital cash without relying on secondary networks.
Transaction Fees
Fees on Bitcoin Cash are typically fractions of a cent.
Even during periods of heavy use, fees remain extremely low due to ample block space.
For example:
Sending $10 to a friend → ~$0.0005 fee
Paying a merchant → typically under one cent
Cross-border transfer → still under a cent
This fee environment is essential for micro-transactions, tipping, gaming, and remittances.
Instant payments and Replace-by-Fee (RBF)
Unlike Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash does not use Replace-by-Fee (RBF) by default. This design choice makes unconfirmed transactions significantly more reliable for everyday payments, allowing merchants and users to safely accept small transactions with near-instant settlement. Subsequent protocol upgrades have further improved the handling of chained and unconfirmed transactions, strengthening Bitcoin Cash’s suitability for high-volume, low-value payment environments.
But unlike many contract-heavy blockchains, CashTokens preserve efficiency by avoiding global state bloat, keeping BCH:
Scalable
Lightweight
Affordable
Easy to run at home
CashTokens expand BCH’s utility into areas such as on-chain trading, stablecoins, loyalty programs, digital collectibles, and permissionless services.
In addition to CashTokens, developers can build programmable applications on Bitcoin Cash using tools such as Cashscript, a high-level smart contract language designed specifically for BCH. These applications enable conditional payments, escrow arrangements, and other on-chain logic without relying on complex virtual machines, allowing Bitcoin Cash to support more advanced functionality while maintaining efficiency and low transaction costs.
Privacy on Bitcoin Cash: CashShuffle and CashFusion
Bitcoin Cash is a public ledger, but users have access to voluntary privacy tools:
CashShuffle
A coin-mixing protocol that groups multiple users’ transactions and redistributes them so no single input can be tied clearly to an output, as implemented by the CashShuffle.
CashFusion
A more advanced privacy system that uses multi-party transaction “fusions” to make deterministic tracing extremely difficult. Unlike custodial mixers, CashFusion never takes possession of user funds and instead restructures transactions cooperatively.
A more advanced privacy system using multi-party transaction “fusions” that make deterministic tracing extremely difficult.
Unlike mixers that rely on custodial processes, CashFusion never takes possession of user funds. It simply restructures transactions cooperatively. Learn more about .
Privacy tools on BCH do not alter consensus rules - they operate at the wallet layer, keeping the base protocol simple and robust.
Real-World Use Cases
Everyday Payments
BCH is used globally for retail purchases, utility payments, e-commerce, and person-to-person transactions. Low fees make it suitable for any amount - from micropayments to high-value transfers.
Remittances
Cross-border payments using BCH are:
Faster than bank transfers
Cheaper than traditional remittance services
Accessible globally
Fees rarely exceed a cent, making BCH practical for families sending money abroad.
Merchant Adoption
Thousands of merchants support BCH worldwide through payment tools and integrations such as:
Miners compete to solve cryptographic puzzles that validate transactions and secure the network. This requires real economic cost, making attacks extremely expensive.
SHA-256
BCH shares the mining algorithm with Bitcoin, meaning miners can choose which chain to mine depending on profitability.
Bitcoin Cash also uses a responsive difficulty adjustment algorithm designed to keep block production stable even as mining hash power shifts between networks. This helps ensure consistent transaction confirmations and predictable network behavior during periods of market volatility.
Decentralized Mining Ecosystem
Hashrate is distributed across multiple mining pools globally.
This decentralization protects the network from unilateral control or censorship.
Bitcoin Cash vs Bitcoin: Key Differences
Below is a direct comparison of the two chains as of 2026:
Feature
Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
Launch
2009
2017
Purpose
Store of value
Peer-to-peer payments
Block Size
~1–4 MB
Both networks share the same monetary foundation but pursue different philosophies.
Historical Forks of Bitcoin Cash
Bitcoin Cash has its own fork history:
2018: BCH → Bitcoin SV (BSV)
A disagreement over block size policies and network direction created a split.
Bitcoin Cash ABC remained “Bitcoin Cash,” while Bitcoin SV became its own chain.
2020: Bitcoin ABC Hard Fork
BCH split again due to disagreements over funding mechanisms.
The community overwhelmingly supported Bitcoin Cash Node (BCHN), which became the canonical Bitcoin Cash chain.
These events reinforced BCH’s commitment to decentralized, community-driven governance.
Governance and Upgrades
Bitcoin Cash maintains a predictable upgrade schedule, generally once per year. Upgrades are coordinated through:
Open discussion
Developer collaboration
Miner and node operator consensus
This process ensures upgrades are deliberate, stable, and aligned with user needs. Like Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash governance is not dictated by any single authority. Network upgrades emerge through a process of discussion, experimentation, and voluntary adoption by users, miners, developers, and node operators, forming a decentralized social consensus around how the protocol evolves over time.
Recent upgrade themes include:
Validation efficiency
CashTokens enhancement
Script improvements
Scaling and resource management
Usability refinements
Future Outlook
While Bitcoin Cash is optimized for payments, it retains the same fixed supply and issuance schedule as Bitcoin, allowing it to function as a scarce digital asset alongside its role as a medium of exchange. Bitcoin Cash’s long-term trajectory is centered around:
Global payments
Merchant adoption
Low-fee transaction reliability
Privacy tools
New tokenized economies
On-chain applications through CashTokens
Scalable infrastructure without sacrificing decentralization
As of 2026, the BCH ecosystem continues to develop - from the growth of CashTokens-based platforms to expanding merchant networks, wallet innovations, and ongoing upgrades aimed at strengthening BCH as a global digital cash system.
How to Store, Buy, and Use Bitcoin Cash
Buying BCH
If you want to start using BCH for payments, remittances, or other applications, you can buy Bitcoin Cash through the Bitcoin.com Wallet, supported exchanges, P2P platforms, and other services
Bitcoin Cash is commonly used for everyday payments such as paying merchants, sending funds internationally, online shopping, gaming, tipping, and interacting with CashTokens-based applications, with guidance available on how to use Bitcoin Cash, as well as for businesses looking to start accepting Bitcoin Cash and understand the benefits of accepting it.
Conclusion
Bitcoin Cash was created to preserve one of the most important ideas in the history of digital money: that anyone, anywhere, should be able to send value instantly, affordably, and without permission. In the years since its launch, BCH has remained committed to this mission while evolving far beyond its origins as a Bitcoin fork. The network now supports large-scale on-chain payments, near-zero transaction fees, privacy-enhancing tools, and a growing tokenized economy powered by CashTokens.
In 2026, Bitcoin Cash continues to serve millions of users worldwide who rely on it for remittances, merchant payments, micro-transactions, and peer-to-peer transfers. Its development remains decentralized and community-driven, with a clear focus on scalability, efficiency, and long-term reliability.
For users and developers who believe in a future where cryptocurrency functions as practical money - not just a store of value - Bitcoin Cash remains one of the strongest and most mature implementations of that vision. Whether you are exploring digital payments, building new on-chain applications, or simply looking for a fast and inexpensive way to move money globally, BCH offers a powerful, proven, and accessible alternative.
