Bitcoin SV (BSV): The Blockchain Restoring Bitcoin's Original Vision

Bitcoin SV: Everything You Need to Know

BSV is the native cryptocurrency of the Bitcoin SV blockchain network, which is a hard fork of Bitcoin Cash (BCH), which is itself a fork of the original Bitcoin blockchain. BSV stands for Bitcoin Satoshi Vision, as it claims to follow the original vision of the Bitcoin protocol and design as described in Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper. BSV was launched in November 2018, following a heated dispute among the BCH community over the proposed protocol changes by several BCH developers. The main point of contention was the block size limit, which determines how many transactions can be processed in each block. While BCH had already increased the block size limit from 1 MB to 32 MB, some developers wanted to further increase it to 128 MB, while others opposed it. The disagreement led to a split in the BCH network, resulting in two competing chains: BCH ABC and BCH SV. The former retained the 32 MB limit, while the latter increased it to 128 MB. Eventually, BCH ABC became the dominant chain and retained the BCH ticker, while BCH SV rebranded itself as BSV.

How does it work?

BSV works similarly to BTC and BCH, as it uses the proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to secure the network and validate transactions. Miners compete to solve complex mathematical puzzles and earn rewards in BSV tokens. However, unlike BTC and BCH, BSV has removed the artificial block size limit and allows miners to decide how big their blocks can be. As of April 2021, the average block size on BSV is around 13 MB, while the largest block ever mined on BSV was 638 MB. By allowing larger blocks, BSV aims to achieve higher scalability and faster transaction throughput than BTC and BCH. BSV also claims to restore the original functionality of the Bitcoin protocol by re-enabling some opcodes (operations) that were disabled or restricted by BTC developers over time. These opcodes enable more complex transactions and scripts on the BSV network, such as tokens, smart contracts, computation and data use cases.

Who are the team behind it?

BSV is developed and supported by a number of entities and individuals who share a common vision of Bitcoin. The main developer of BSV is nChain, a blockchain technology company based in London. nChain provides the Bitcoin SV Infrastructure Team, which delivers protocol updates and node software for the BSV network. The chief scientist of nChain is Craig Wright, who has claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious creator of Bitcoin. Wright has been a vocal supporter of BSV since its inception and has filed several lawsuits against those who challenge his claim or oppose his vision. Another prominent supporter of BSV is Calvin Ayre, a Canadian entrepreneur and founder of Ayre Group and CoinGeek. Ayre is one of the largest investors and miners in the BSV ecosystem and regularly promotes BSV projects and events. In addition, there is a non-profit organization called Bitcoin Association that supports the global growth and adoption of BSV. The association provides education, advocacy, development funding and networking opportunities for the BSV community.

What are its use cases?

BSV aims to be more than just a digital currency; it wants to be a global data network that can support enterprise-level applications and innovation. Some of the use cases that BSV enables or supports include:

Peer-to-peer payments: BSV can be used as a fast, cheap and secure way to send and receive money across borders or within countries. BSV transactions have very low fees (less than a cent) and can be confirmed within seconds.

Micropayments: BSV can facilitate micropayments for various online services and content providers, such as social media platforms, streaming sites, gaming platforms and news outlets. Users can pay small amounts of BSV for accessing or consuming content without intermediaries or subscription fees.

Tokenization: BSV can enable the creation and transfer of tokens that represent various assets or rights on the blockchain. These tokens can be used for crowdfunding, loyalty programs, digital collectibles, gaming items and more.

Smart contracts: BSV can support smart contracts that execute automatically based on predefined rules and conditions. These smart contracts can be used for escrow services, insurance policies, supply chain management and more.

Data storage: BSV can store large amounts of data on the blockchain in an immutable and verifiable way. This data can be used for identity verification, medical records, property rights, audit trails and more.