Hash Watch: Kraken Announces BCH Fork Plans, Bitcoin ABC Reveals Two-Pronged Effort

Clone Scripts Jan 22, 2023 0 105 Add to Reading List

A number of third party infrastructure providers have announced contingency plans for the upcoming Bitcoin Cash upgrade on November 15, 2020. Hitbtc has revealed the exchange’s plans to halt bitcoin cash transactions on that day, and it plans to credit all users with an additional token if a blockchain split happens. Additionally, Kraken has announced plans for the fork as well with airdrop support requirements.

The Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network will upgrade on November 15, 2020, and the latest feature that will be added to the network is the ASERT Difficulty Adjustment Algorithm (DAA).
Bitcoin Cash may bifurcate due to the introduction of the infrastructure funding proposal (IFP) added to the Bitcoin ABC codebase. Six other BCH full node clients will not adopt the IFP feature added to the software.
Meanwhile, in a surprise twist, Bitcoin ABC announced it will also launch a software client that is IFP-free and compatible with BCHN and the rest of the full node clients. “Businesses have the freedom to choose between the two chains,” Bitcoin ABC’s blog post notes.
A great number of Bitcoin Cash proponents on Reddit and Twitter believe ABC’s latest announcement is a ploy to stay relevant. “This seems like a last-ditch effort for relevance. As always, ABC can do whatever they want with their code. I just hope no one is duped into giving them the time of day after their recent behavior,” the Reddit user ‘AD1AD’ responded on Friday.
The trading platform Hitbtc has revealed fork contingency plans and says that it will support both blockhains if there is a split on the 15th.
“The new token will be issued to all users by a 1:1 ratio based on a full snapshot of BCH balances on Hitbtc at 12:00 PM (UTC) on November 15th,” Hitbtc’s announcement states. “A decision on which chain will carry BCH ticker on Hitbtc will be taken after the completion of the fork,” the company added.
Kraken revealed its plans for next Sunday as well and the exchange says that it “will support [the] Bitcoin Cash Node regardless of the outcome of the fork.” “Bitcoin Cash Node tokens will be called ‘Bitcoin Cash’ on our platform and represented by the ticker symbol ‘BCH,’” Kraken added.
“We will support Bitcoin Cash ABC only if the hashpower on the ABC network is at least 10% of the hashpower on the Bitcoin Cash Node network,” Kraken stressed. “If we support Bitcoin Cash ABC, it will be called ‘Bitcoin Cash ABC’ on our platform and represented by the ticker symbol ‘BAB.’”

The two-pronged Bitcoin ABC announcement can be read here, the Hitbtc statement can be read here, and Kraken’s contingency plan for the BCH fork on November 15, 2020, can be read here. The r/btc community responses to ABC’s latest announcement can be read here. If you missed out on any of the prior news.Bitcoin.com-based BCH upgrade announcements, check out the articles below.