The crypto community was set for a clash of titans prior to the hard fork which was scheduled for the 15th of November 2018, with the two subchains of Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Cash ABC and Bitcoin Cash SV taking the hash power battle to a whole new level.
The Craig effect
It was initially reported that Bitcoin SV, which is headed by Craig Stephen Wright and supported by billionaire Calvin Ayre held over 57% of the hash power, just more than enough to launch a double-spend attack (51% attack) on the network.
The Craig’s threats seemed to have yielded results with many miners and developers losing confidence in the short –term trend of the asset. Unlike the past where the price of Bitcoin Cash soared prior to the hard fork, this time witnessed the price of the fourth largest cryptocurrency plunge by over 20% just a week to the much-anticipated hard fork, raising questions on the vulnerability of the asset.
Bitcoin SV never stood a chance
The much-anticipated hash battle eventually kicked off on Thursday with Bitcoin Cash taking a clear lead just 30 minutes after the start of the hard fork. With the aid of Bitcoin.com and ViaBTC, Bitcoin ABC, the full node implementation of the Bitcoin Cash protocol, was able to successfully protect its protocol against intrusion threats from Craig’s side while at the same time shift the hash power equilibrium in favor of Bitcoin Cash.
Jiang Zhuoer, the CEO of BTC.TOP, on November 15th, revealed that mining pools under Bitmain, (a $15 billion Chinese Crypto mining equipment manufacturer and mining pool operator) such as BTC.com which supports Bitcoin ABC had a cumulative hash rate of over 20 exhaust, twice the hash rate of Coingeek and SVPool, the two mining pools supporting Bitcoin SV.
“Mining pools under Bitmain (such as BTC.com and Antpool) collectively have 15,000 P hash rate. With ViaBTC where Bitmain is a shareholder, the entity has 20,000 P hash rate altogether,” Zhuoer said.
Bitcoin SV lacks holistic visionary
A pundit in matters protocol and an associate professor of computer science at Cornell University Emin Gun Sirer explained the outcome of the hash battle as the reason for which a holistic vision is necessary for a successful launch and operation of a blockchain platform.
“This point is at the heart of the main lesson from BCH hash war. One cannot assemble a good team just with money. To attract top-notch talent, you need a strong, scientifically valid vision and novel, exciting tech, among other things. BSV has none of this,” Sirer explained.
