On November 15, 2020, the Bitcoin Cash blockchain experienced a network upgrade and a bifurcation of the chain as well. While the Bitcoin Cash network continued on smoothly, the ABC pro infrastructure funding plan (IFP) side of the chain had a rocky and extremely slow start. Since the 15th, the nameless ABC chain has seen 197 blocks processed to-date, as a few miners are pointing hashrate at the network keeping the new blockchain going.
Just recently Bitcoin Cash (BCH) endured a network upgrade and a consensus split when the full node project Bitcoin ABC decided to keep the IFP baked into the code. The IFP was very contentious and during the months leading up to the fork, miners and major business operations began switching over to the non-IFP node BCHN and other full node implementations.
The last Bitcoin Cash common block on November 15, 2020, was at block height 661,647 and was mined by Binance. After that point at approximately 12:33 p.m. EST, the ABC pro-IFP side continued on as its own chain, as two distinct blocks were mined. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was 20 blocks ahead of the ABC chain at this point in time that afternoon.
As of today, the ABC chain has processed 197 blocks, as miners have dedicated a diminutive amount of SHA256 hashrate to the alternative network. Coin Dance statistics show the ABC airdrop coin has roughly 0.13 exahash per second (EH/s), while BCH has 1.93 EH/s dedicated to the Bitcoin Cash chain.
While ABC’s side found 197 blocks, BCH miners have found 1093 blocks under the new consensus rule. At the time of publication, the ABC chain, otherwise known as “BAB,” has three known mining pools pointing hashrate at the chain. Viabtc, BCHA Pro, and Mining-Dutch are mining the coin, alongside a much larger hashrate of stealth miners.
The majority of BAB hashpower is making empty blocks.
With a coinbase message that says:
/Nov 25th 2020/— Reorg risk warning in BAB/BCHA/ABC — pic.twitter.com/5SskQ9dw8H
— Javier González González (@JavierGonzalez) November 21, 2020
More than 79% of the ABC airdrop’s network is being mined by an unknown group of miners. During the last 24 hours, the unknown hashrate has been mining consecutive empty blocks. The empty ABC chain blocks also had a coinbase parameter message that once said: “/Nov 25th 2020/.” Although, that coinbase message has changed in recent hours.
On Sunday, Bitcoin Cash proponent Javier González tweeted that the BAB chain was at extreme risk of a blockchain reorganization (reorg). “The BAB empty blocks now include this message: ‘> Nov 25th 2020: bcha dump | http://voluntarism.dev:6174 u/p: x/x,’” González wrote.
The $BCHA miner that previously mined empty blocks is now also signalling “Nov 25th 2020: bcha dump”. The chain is being attacked for over a day now. And it’s super cheap to attack it — for example, a 51% attack would cost just ~$300 an hour at the current hashrate. pic.twitter.com/go9rYSmHzA
— Nikita Zhavoronkov (@nikzh) November 22, 2020
A great number of people are speculating on something happening on November 25th, but no one knows what to expect. Yesterday, during the market run-up, BCHA (ABC chain or BAB) was trading for $21 in USDT per coin and on Sunday, the token is swapping for $18.93 per unit on Coinex. If prices were to hover around $18.93 per BAB coin, the token’s overall market cap would be around $350 million. This estimated market valuation would place the nameless ABC chain’s token at the 47th position in terms of market cap.
Meanwhile, a number of crypto enthusiasts have been posting threads on how to split coins. Bitcoinbch.com’s CEO, Hayden Otto, published a video on how to split tokens in an easy fashion by leveraging the Coinex exchange. However, because the unknown miner has been mining empty blocks and the blockchain is much slower than other networks, ABC chain confirmation times can be a very long wait.
Furthermore, on November 20, 2020, the Bitcoin ABC official Twitter account tweeted about the new chain. The team explained that an official brand launch would be coming soon.
“BCHA will soon be branded with an official coin name, logo, and ticker. When it launches we’ll reach out to exchanges and other businesses directly to make them aware,” the ABC team disclosed in a blog post. Unfortunately, the nameless chain has no replay protection, and ABC developers have casually addressed the concern by simply stating: “Splitting the coins can be tricky, so take care.”
What do you think about the ABC chain’s developments and the new network? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.
Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Coin Dance Statistics,
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