Bitcoin Forks
This chapter looks at the major forks of Bitcoin, how and why they came about, and the different directions each community chose to pursue.
Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV) – A Brief History
Origins
Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV) emerged in November 2018 as the result of a contentious hard fork from Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Bitcoin Cash itself had forked from Bitcoin (BTC) in August 2017, originally to increase block sizes and pursue a vision of peer-to-peer digital cash.
The Dispute
Within the Bitcoin Cash community, disagreements grew around the technical roadmap:
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Block Size: BCH developers favored a gradual approach to scaling, while Craig Wright and Calvin Ayre’s CoinGeek group pushed for much larger block sizes, claiming this was closer to the original whitepaper vision.
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Script Changes & Features: BCH developers introduced new opcodes and features that BSV supporters argued deviated from “Satoshi’s Vision.”
The Fork
The conflict culminated in a hash war in November 2018, where miners aligned with each camp directed hash power to their preferred chain. The outcome was a split:
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Bitcoin Cash ABC (later just BCH): Backed by developers like Amaury Séchet and much of the BCH community.
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Bitcoin SV (Satoshi Vision): Backed by Craig Wright, Calvin Ayre, and their allies, with an initial block size of 128 MB, later expanded to 2 GB and beyond.
Philosophy
BSV’s stated mission is to restore Bitcoin to what its supporters believe was the “original protocol” described in the 2008 whitepaper—unbounded scaling, low-fee transactions, and enterprise-level blockchain applications.
Controversy
Since its inception, BSV has been controversial:
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Craig Wright’s claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto is widely disputed.
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Many exchanges delisted BSV in 2019 after public disputes.
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Development continues under nChain and associated entities, with a focus on data storage, micro-payments, and large-scale blockchain solutions.