Bitcoin has Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin Cash has Roger Ver aka Bitcoin Jesus.
Cryptocurrency investor, Roger Ver, had an early interest in Bitcoin (2011). He called it “one of the most important inventions in the history of humankind.”
When bitcoin was <$1, Ver accumulated ~400,000 bitcoin. During this time Ver would spread the gospel of Bitcoin, helped several Bitcoin projects, and was an early investor in startups like BitInstant.
Bitcoin Jesus is not without controversy. Roger turned away from Bitcoin and would turn his attention and interest to Bitcoin Cash. He thought that when people would buy bitcoin cash, it would allow them to pay for goods and services with minimal fees.
What else attracted Ver to Bitcoin Cash?
In this guide, we’ll compare Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. Read on to learn their similarities, differences, and how to buy bitcoin cash.
Bitcoin vs Bitcoin Cash
If you’re new to investing in Bitcoin, you may be surprised and even confused at the different types of Bitcoin available. For example, other than the original Bitcoin, there is Bitcoin Gold (BTG), Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision (BSV), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
If you’re not careful, you could lose your precious bitcoin or buy bitcoin cash when you meant to buy bitcoin and visa versa. Always double-check before you hit send or buy.
Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash are the two most popular “Bitcoins”. Why does there need to be two or more Bitcoin anyways?
Bitcoin was launched in 2009 when a pseudonymous character, Satoshi Nakamoto, posted the Bitcoin Whitepaper. The promise was a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. This system would be decentralized and utilize blockchain technology.
The blockchain is a transparent, open, immutable ledger. Transactions are put into validated, put into blocks, and added to the chain. This is all done through a process called Bitcoin mining.
Since Bitcoin’s blockchain has grown so much since its infancy, this causes the network to slow down and fees to shoot up.
Bitcoin Cash is a fork of Bitcoin. It aimed to solve Bitcoin’s scalability problem by increasing Bitcoin’s block size from 1MB to 8MB and later 32MB. With this change, more transactions can be processed per block.
At the time of the fork, anyone who had bitcoin would then be credited with an equal amount of bitcoin cash.
How to Buy Bitcoin Cash
There are several ways to buy bitcoin cash. It isn’t difficult to do so and the more you do it the easier it becomes. Let’s look at some of the ways below.
Exchanges
One of the easiest ways to get your hands on some bitcoin cash and other types of crypto is heading to an exchange.
There are plenty of exchanges to choose from such as Coinbase, Kraken, KuCoin, Binance, Crypto.com, 1Inch, Bisq, Uniswap, and Pancakeswap.
These exchanges are easy to set up and use. You will most likely need to provide some form of identification (ID) and link an account like a bank and/or debit or credit card. This is largely due to KYC/AML (Know Your Customer/Anti-Money Laundering) regulations.
These exchanges can be broken down into two categories—centralized and decentralized.
Centralized
A centralized exchange (CEX) is when a third party or middleman is involved to help facilitate and oversee transactions. This is similar to how a bank would handle your assets.
It boils down to one word—trust.
You are putting your trust in the hands of the people behind the exchange. You are trusting the exchange will safely handle your crypto, complete transactions, find trading partners, etc.
There is a saying in the crypto space—”don’t trust, verify.”
If the crypto space has learned anything in recent memory with the SBF/FTX fiasco, it’s this.
For this reason, you never want to leave your crypto on an exchange. This is partially because, on a centralized exchange, you are not in possession of your private keys. As mentioned, a centralized exchange IS NOT a hot wallet.
To buy bitcoin cash, you’ll need to fund your account via a bank or other crypto. Find a trading partner and click buy.
If you do use a centralized exchange as a crypto investor when you buy bitcoin cash, move your funds off of the exchange immediately.
More and more people are moving away from centralized exchanges to decentralized exchanges.
Decentralized
A decentralized exchange (DEX) cut out the middleman entirely. A DEX like 1Inch, Bisq, Uniswap, and Pancakeswap allow you a self-sovereign approach. You are in complete control of your private keys and data.
With this power comes responsibility.
Many of these DEXs use smart contracts and automated market makers (AMMs) to determine the price of crypto assets. This means liquidity may not be as strong as it is on Cass.
Buying bitcoin cash via a DEX is simple. Each one will have different functions and features, so choose one to your liking.
First, download or purchase a self-custody wallet. Give it a name. Store your recovery phrase in a safe place.
Buy bitcoin cash right in the DEXs’ app. Choose “bitcoin cash” as the cryptocurrency you’d like to buy. You will swap or trade this with fiat or another crypto. Click confirm and the bitcoin cash is yours.
Peer-To-Peer
Peer-to-peer (p2p) trading is similar to decentralized exchanges in that there is no middleman. It is an end-to-end approach where escrow places an indispensable role. The escrow wallet is under admin control.
Debit/Credit
Many services (including CEXs) offer a way to buy bitcoin cash and other types of crypto with a debit or credit card. This makes things a lot simpler for the newbie to get started as a crypto investor.
Bitcoin Cash ATM
You could always buy bitcoin cash from a Bitcoin ATM. This works very similarly to how you would purchase via an exchange online.
Find a Bitcoin ATM in your neighborhood that supports Bitcoin Cash. When you do, be sure to bring your ID and a crypto wallet. Decide how much bitcoin cash you’d like to buy and scan your Bitcoin Cash public address QR code.
Follow this step by step guide to withdraw properly from a Bitcoin ATM.
Wallets
After purchasing bitcoin cash, you need a place to put it, right? While technically your bitcoin cash (and any cryptocurrency for that matter) lives on the blockchain, a wallet is a way of interacting with the blockchain.
Public and Private Keys
Your wallet will show you how much bitcoin cash you have in your bitcoin cash wallet. Your bitcoin cash public address is what you share when you wish to receive bitcoin cash.
The public address will look like a random string of numbers and letters. You can think of it in the same vein as an e-mail address.
Your private keys are similar to a master password. You never want to share your private keys and/or seed phrases with anyone. This is because anyone who has access to your private keys and/or seed phrases has access to your crypto.
Private keys are how you prove ownership of a blockchain address as well as allow you to sign transactions. This is why you must write down and safely store your private keys offline.
Remember the mantra—not your keys, not your cheese.
A seed phrase is similar to a private key but not exactly the same. A seed phrase is an alphanumeric human-readable phrase consisting of 12-24 words. It’s good practice to write down and store both.
Hot
A hot wallet is one you download to your smartphone or personal computer. They are an easy way to store many different types of crypto including bitcoin cash.
Popular options here are Exodus, Coinomi, Atomic, and MetaMask.
While they are convenient, you are also more vulnerable and susceptible to hackers since a hot wallet is connected to the internet. What you give up in security, you gain in convenience.
For example, a hacker may try to phish you or use some other form of social engineering to gain access to your private keys. Once they have access to your private keys, they can wipe the funds right from your hot wallet.
You don’t want to confuse a hot wallet for an exchange. This comes back to the mantra—not your keys, not your cheese. Do your own research (DYOR) on the difference between custodial and non-custodial.
Cold
A cold wallet is one that isn’t connected to the internet. For this reason alone, the crypto space agrees that they are the safer solution for storage. With that said, you always want to follow the best privacy and security practices.
Many cold wallets will look and feel like thumb or external hard drives. Popular options here are Ledger and Trezor.
Begin Investing in Bitcoin Cash
Now that you’ve learned how to buy bitcoin cash, will you invest in bitcoin cash? Remember to DYOR and do your due diligence on the cryptocurrency.
Aside from buying bitcoin cash, you could also earn it via mining or social media platforms like read.cash or noise.cash.
Soft and hard forks will continue to happen in the crypto space. It is truly an interesting time to witness it all. To stay in the loop, be sure to read our blog daily.
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