Bitcoin Cash
- Ticker
- BCH
- Category
- Payments
- Risk profile
- Volatile
What it is
A network created by a 2017 hard fork of Bitcoin, taking the opposite side of a long argument about whether to scale by enlarging blocks or by moving activity to other layers.
Why this risk level
- Larger blocks fit more transactions per block, which keeps on-chain fees low while activity is modest; the cost is a heavier chain to store and relay, which raises the bar for running a full node over time
- The fork was contentious rather than technical housekeeping: everyone holding at the fork block held on both chains afterwards, and the two have followed separate development paths since
- BCH pays fees and is the unit of account on its own chain; it is a distinct asset from BTC despite the shared history and the similar proof-of-work design
A plain-English risk overview for education, not investment advice. Risk profiles describe the asset's own characteristics, not a price forecast — always do your own research before buying.
Other coin guides
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