Table of Contents
In this report:
- The Markets: Why are Bitcoin Forks Pumping?
- Top 100 Gainers: Compound (COMP) +86% (7d)
- Micro-Cap Gainers (30-days): World State Coin (W$C) +3,647% (30d)
- Monthly Altcoin Pick: Altcoin Pick has been released!
Bitcoin Forks are Pumping!
In the last 24 hours, Bitcoin Forks and in particular forks of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) have been pumping.
eCash (XEC) which is a fork of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is up 77% in just the last 24 hours.
In the last week, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), eCash (XEC), and Bitcoin SV (BSV) are all up 72%, 66%, and 60% respectively.
In the last 30 days, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has increased by 169%.
Before we dive into the details, you may be asking yourself - What's a Bitcoin Fork?
What's a Bitcoin Fork?
A Bitcoin fork is a change or upgrade to the Bitcoin network protocol that creates two separate versions of the blockchain with a shared history. There are typically two types of Forks: hard forks and soft forks.
- Hard Forks: A hard fork is a type of protocol upgrade that is not backward compatible. When a hard fork occurs, the software implementing the new protocol is no longer compatible with the older version. This means that all network participants (nodes, miners, users, exchanges, etc.) must upgrade to the new software to continue participating in the network. If some participants choose not to upgrade, then two separate and incompatible blockchains can result, each with its own version of the transaction history and new transactions. This is how new cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV were created.
- Soft Forks: A soft fork, on the other hand, is a backward-compatible upgrade. This means that even non-upgraded nodes can still validate transactions according to the old set of rules. However, they may not be able to validate new transactions that follow the new set of rules. If a majority of miners adopt the new software, the longest chain (which is considered the valid one) will follow the new set of rules, essentially forcing all nodes to adopt the upgrade. An example of a soft fork in Bitcoin is the introduction of Segregated Witness (SegWit), which changed the way data was stored in blocks to increase the Bitcoin network's capacity.
eCash (XEC) which is up 77% in the last 24 hours is a fork of Bitcoin Cash (BCH), which in turn, is a fork of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a fork of Bitcoin that was created in August 2017. The main difference between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash lies in the size of blocks in the blockchain, which is larger in Bitcoin Cash, thus increasing the number of transactions that can be processed per second.
eCash (XEC)
eCash (XEC) is a project that builds on the success of Bitcoin Cash (BCH), expanding its mission to provide a secure peer-to-peer electronic cash system and has been designed to be more flexible, secure, and scalable than its predecessor, Bitcoin Cash.
eCash offers several benefits to its users. It leverages some aspects of Bitcoin, such as a capped supply, halving schedule, and genesis block, to ensure security. A key advantage of eCash is its scalability. The network employs the Avalanche consensus mechanism to achieve near-instant confirmation times allowing the network to expand its transaction capacity from approximately 100 transactions per second (tx/s) to over 5 million tx/s.
Why are these Forks Pumping?
It's likely many investors are looking to these forks as an evolution of Bitcoin's main code and in many ways a better "Bitcoin", yet less well-known (and much cheaper).
Bitcoin Cash is currently trading at $295, a massive difference from Bitcoin's $30,000. And eCash is currently trading at a fraction, of a fraction of a cent ($0.0...04075).
These forks (like eCash) have overcome many of the problems Bitcoin is currently experiencing (such as slow transaction speeds) and in many ways are an improved, better Bitcoin (however I am sure the Bitcoin maximalists would disagree).
It's likely many investors are seeing these forks as an opportunity to get into a better more evolved Bitcoin at a much lower price.
So, if you missed out on buying Bitcoin in the early days, you may want to consider a Bitcoin Fork, like Bitcoin Cash or eCash at way discounted prices.
Richard.
Crypto Market at a Glance (7D):
Crypto Fear & Greed Index:
Today's Crypto Fear and Greed index = Greed -- Decreased to 56 (from 62 last week).
Bitcoin & Ethereum Price Movement
Bitcoin has decreased 0.34% in the last week, currently trading at $30,492. In the previous 90 days, Bitcoin has increased by 7.0%.
Ethereum has increased 2.73% in the last week, currently trading at $1,938.26. In the previous 90 days, Ethereum has increased by 6.06%.
Global cryptocurrency market capitalization increased this week from $1.18T to $1.19T.
Top 100 Gainers - Last 7 Days
Over the last 7 days, the biggest gainers (within the top 100):
We continue to see Bitcoin Forks making this list again this week. Three of the biggest (Top 100) gainers this week are Bitcoin forks. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a direct Bitcoin direct fork. Bitcoin SV (BSV) and eCash (XEC) are direct forks of Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
Compound (COMP) +81% - Ranked #87
Compound (COMP) is a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol that allows users to earn interest on their cryptocurrencies by depositing them into one of several pools supported by the platform. It was introduced in 2017 by Robert Leshner and Geoffrey Hayes. It's built on the Ethereum blockchain and is one of the leading protocols in the DeFi space.
When users deposit, say, ETH into the Compound platform, they receive cETH in return. These cTokens represent the individual's stake in the pool and continuously earn interest over time. The interest rate is determined by supply and demand dynamics for the specific crypto asset in the pool.
COMP is the native governance token of the Compound protocol. It is used to vote on various protocol parameters and changes, such as collateral factors and interest rate models. In other words, COMP token holders have the power to influence the rules and future development of the Compound protocol. The token was first distributed in June 2020.
eCash (XEC) +72% - Ranked #48
eCash (XEC) is a cryptocurrency project that builds on the success of Bitcoin Cash (BCH), expanding its mission to provide a secure peer-to-peer electronic cash system. The protocol is designed to be more flexible, secure, and scalable than its predecessor, Bitcoin Cash.
eCash offers several benefits to its users. It leverages some aspects from Bitcoin, such as a capped supply, halving schedule, and genesis block, to ensure security. A key advantage of eCash is its scalability. The network employs the Avalanche consensus mechanism to achieve near-instant confirmation times by using mass parallelization and a multi-layered structure. This allows the network to expand its transaction capacity from approximately 100 transactions per second (tx/s) to over 5 million tx/s.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) +66% - Ranked #14
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a cryptocurrency that is a fork of Bitcoin. It was created in August 2017. The main difference between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash lies in the size of blocks in the blockchain, which is larger in Bitcoin Cash, thus increasing the number of transactions that can be processed per second. The goal of Bitcoin Cash is to address the scalability issues that Bitcoin faces, allowing more transactions to happen at a faster pace.
The split from Bitcoin to Bitcoin Cash is what's known as a "hard fork", which is when blockchain-based protocols diverge into two different paths. This was a result of a disagreement within the Bitcoin community about how to best address scaling issues. Some developers believed that increasing the block size would be more effective, while others believed in maintaining the block size and making changes to the way data was stored in the existing blocks.
It's important to note that despite the name, Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash are now completely separate currencies, and their prices and values are not tied together.
Bitcoin SV (BSV) +60% - Ranked #40
Bitcoin SV (BSV) stands for Bitcoin Satoshi Vision. It is a cryptocurrency that was created as a hard fork of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) in November 2018. The creation of Bitcoin SV was driven by a disagreement within the Bitcoin Cash community about the best way to continue developing the platform.
The group that created Bitcoin SV wanted to stay closer to the original vision of Bitcoin as described by its pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto. They aimed to do this by increasing the block size limit even more significantly than Bitcoin Cash, enabling more transactions to be processed in each block and thus potentially improving scalability. As of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021, the block size limit of Bitcoin SV is 2GB, much larger than that of both Bitcoin (1MB) and Bitcoin Cash (32MB).
Biggest Micro-Cap Gainers in the last 30 days
Every week we review and analyze small and micro market cap cryptos looking for the next low-cap gem. These are the best-performing (quality) micro-cap projects over the last 30 days:
Best Performing Quality Micro Caps (Last 30 days):
- W$C +3,647% - Virtual Citizen-Based (state) altcoin (Micro-Cap)
- IGU +480% - Gamified, Pet Themed Play-to-Earn (Micro-Cap)
- GST-ETH +404% - Stepn (Green Sato (ETH) Move-to-Earn (Nano-Cap)
- DACXI +292% - Global Equity Crowdfunding (Micro-Cap)
- AZIT +168% - Real estate on the Blockchain (Micro-Cap)
It should be noted that both W$C and GST-ETH made the list for the third week in a row.
Monthly Altcoin Pick:
We just released our Altcoin pick. If you would like access to this and future Altcoin picks, consider becoming a member.
Altcoin picks are emailed to members as soon as they are published. If you are wondering how we choose our monthly Altcoin Picks - this is the strategy we use for choosing them.
Our Altcoin Picks for the prior months can be found here.
Thanks and appreciation to all our members!
Until the next report,
Richard
){kind=link}