Huobi crypto exchange has announced that it would designate the Bitcoin Cash [BCH] symbol to the Bitcoin ABC chain as a result of the November 15 hardfork of the Bitcoin Cash blockchain.
The tweet by the crypto exchange read:
“ABC Version Of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) To Be Re-Designated BCH: Huobi Global has confirmed that the ABC version of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) will be retained for the designation of BCH.”
In a statement published on its website, Huobi explained that the Bitcoin Cash ABC, was assigned the original Bitcoin Cash ticker symbol (BCH) because it was the longer chain at the time.
The statement read:
“Huobi Global has confirmed that the team behind Bitcoin Cash ABC has set up a checkpoint that allows us to ensure that two-way replay protection is in place. As such, Huobi Global will be performing the following actions…Bitcoin Cash ABC, the longer chain, will retain the designation of BCH.”
It continued:
“Based on the snapshot of BCH holdings taken at 00:40 (GMT+8), November 16, 2018, Bitcoin SV (BSV) tokens will be distributed on a 1:1 basis to pre-fork BCH holders.”
The exchange had planned to resume deposits and withdrawals of BCH on Monday, November 19, but an announcement at the time of writing indicates that it have been postponed to a later date which will be communicated to the users.
The BCH Hash War is Still On
Following the split in the BCH network on Nov. 15, the two resulting chains namely BCH Satoshi Vision and BCH ABC are embroiled in a war of hash power which is expected to determine the dominant chain. The dominant chain or longest chain, in most cases, inherits the original blockchain, name and symbol. However, this have been a close call in the case of the BCH split both parties boasting reasonable hash power and percentage of blocks mined.
The Bitcoin Cash ABC, for large swathes of time, led the SV side in the number of blocks mined and this has led Huobi, the world’s third-largest exchange to settle for ABC as the dominant chain. But the hash war is still very much open. At the last check, BCH Satoshi Vision has established a 3 block lead over the Bitcoin ABC after 517 post-hardfork blocks were mined. Bitcoin Cash is still ahead about 38% on proof of work.
OKEx undecided about Dominant BCH Chain
Major cryptocurrency exchanges are seeking to move on from the BCH hardfork and resume deposits and withdrawals of the BCH coin or the resulting tokens. OKEx, the second largest crypto exchange by trading volume, informed its users that it would temporarily assign BCHSV and BCHABC ticker symbols for the Bitcoin Cash SV and Bitcoin Cash ABC chains respectively until it decides which would inherit the BCH ticker. OKEx explained:
“Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHABC) and Bitcoin Cash SV (BCHSV), OKEx will distribute BCHABC and BCHSV to all eligible users at a ratio of 1 BCH = 1 BCHABC + 1 BCHSV according to the snapshot taken at 5:35am-5:40am Nov 16, 2018 (CET). For the ticker “BCH”, we will monitor the situation and users’ feedback, and consider using it to designate either of the newly split token on a later date.”
Binance Delist Original Bitcoin Cash form Platform
As Smartereum reported, the world’s number 1 crypto exchange Binance already distributed the new BCHABC and BCHSV tokens to holders of BCH after the chain split. But unlike OKEx, Binance does not plan to cede the original Bitcoin Cash symbol to any of the warring factions electing to delist the old BCC token from its platform.
Heavy Cost of the Hash Wars
The battle by the two opposing caps to retain the name and ticker symbol of Bitcoin Cash [BCH] is happening at a huge cost. As Smartereum reported, statistics show that both sides of the divide are mining the post-fork blocks at major losses. Considering the energy consumption of Bitmain’s Antminer A9 and the total daily mining revenue, Researchers at BitMex exchange claim the sides are running at average daily losses of $278,000 for SV and $439,221 for ABC. The hard-fork has also been blamed for the sharp slump in crypto markets in the past week.
Solomon Sunny is the market reporter for Smartereum, one of the global leaders in Ethereum, blockchain and currency news. He produces technical price updates on digital currencies and writes recent developments about blockchain.
