To me there are only four major flavors of Bitcoin: BTC, BCH, BSV, and BCHA. I don’t include any of the other 88 Bitcoins listed on coinmarketcap.com because I’ve never seen anyone shilling Bitcoin Gold, or Bitcoin Diamond, or Bitcoin Whatever.
So of the four major Bitcoin flavors, do you know which one has been through them all? Only BCHA.
BCHA forked from BCH, which forked from BSV and BTC. You could say this is a sign that there’s something wrong with the people who lead and support this coin. You might say it’s a symptom of them not understanding how to unite or persuade people to get behind their cause. Maybe there’s some truth in that, but there’s also another truth, and it’s that the people who lead this project have shown time and time again that they’re not afraid to stand by their convictions. They’re not going to cave in, or give up because they’re in the minority. They have also proven multiple times they have the boldness to take action, and the fact is that neither BSV or BCH would even exist if not for Bitcoin ABC.
The point I’m making is that BCHA has been through everything those coins have been through and more. It’s been through the fire, as they say, like gold in a refinery.
So what makes BCHA different? What sets it apart from those others and why do I believe in it so much?
If I had to point to any one thing, I’d have to say it’s the new coinbase rule (NCR). For the first time, a fork of Bitcoin has introduced a price discovery mechanism for developers who work on the protocol, and Bitcoin ABC has set the market rate at 8%.
This means that for the first time we have a version of Bitcoin that can pay skilled engineers directly out of the coinbase instead of with donations or sponsorships. Do you know who earns their income through donations and sponsors? Amateurs.
People have been talking about professionalizing Bitcoin for years. The NCR is doing exactly that by paying developers what is effectively a salary tied directly to the performance of the coin.
For the first time we have a version of Bitcoin that aligns the incentives of all the participants in the ecosystem: the miners, the holders, and the developers. There is no free lunch on BCHA. Each participant contributes to this project, whether it’s with hash power, or through capital injection, or with their time and coding ability.
I know there are other projects that have similar funding mechanisms for developers, but none of them share the same genesis block or sha256 mining algorithm as the original Bitcoin. This is what makes this project truly one of a kind.
Some may argue that the only thing the NCR accomplishes is to create a central point of failure. I’d argue the opposite is true. Because I see the NCR not as giving more power to the protocol developers, but taking some of that power away. Now miners and holders will have a real pathway to firing a development team and replacing them if a better team comes along. Not only because of the 8% salary, but because BCHA is the only chain that has a regularly scheduled upgrade every six months. This means that every six months the miners and holders will have a chance to review the terms of their contract with the developers.
We have effectively entered the free-agency era of Bitcoin, and if you’re a C++ wizard with blockchain expertise, you’re free to compete in order to reap the rewards.
But of course those rewards are worthless unless the price of BCHA goes up, and I’ve heard all the complaints and the grumblings about the price. But the fact that the BCHA price is suppressed makes sense. The BCH whales who don’t believe in this project are still selling, and they have every right to do so. Just keep in mind they can’t sell forever. And because this project is flying as under the radar as you can possibly get, it’s expected that there will be more sellers than there are buyers for the time being.
Just keep in mind you don’t become rich by investing in the obvious. You get rich by seeing opportunities that are hidden to others, that most people hardly know anything about much like those who invested in Bitcoin in its early days. I believe that BCHA offers people that same kind of opportunity today thanks to all the BCH holders who continue dumping their coins. Think of Hewlett-Packard turning down Steve Wozniak’s idea for the Apple computer. I’m not telling you BCHA is the equivalent of Apple when it first launched, I’m just saying you don’t know that it’s not.
The past couple of months for this project have been rocky to say the least. But another way of looking at it would be that it’s created an enormous opportunity for a small group of people to become the early adopters. The project doesn’t even have an official name yet, it’s not listed on many major exchanges, and it doesn’t even have a website. But I have no doubt all of those things will happen when the time is right. Because I know the people working behind the scenes, and while I can’t promise they will succeed, I can promise they are acting in good faith.
Having said that, this isn’t about being devoted to one engineer, or a single team of engineers. It’s about believing in a system built on economic incentives. BCHA isn’t about selling fool’s gold, or orchestrating a giant pump and dump, it’s about building the infrastructure for a better future by starting with the right foundation.
Recently I’ve been thinking about all the redditors who aped into Gamestop last month. Due to all the short sellers, the original thesis was sound, but only if you were willing to sell at the right time. That’s because there was no end game for GME. Those with diamond hands were bound to get rekt. Not so with BCHA because the end game for this project is to create an entirely new financial system where everyone benefits.
Let me finish this article by asking a question some of you might be asking yourselves: if the NCR is such a good thing, why hasn’t it ever been tried before on Bitcoin? The answer is because no one else could pull it off. Think of Bitcoin ABC as the first team to pull the sword out of the stone, and in doing so they have earned the right to be the first, not to rule, but to lead.
The BCHA chain has managed to achieve something unprecedented. I believe the NCR has kicked open the door to the next stage of Bitcoin. One that has a built in funding mechanism so that developers can be rewarded based on their merits rather than their politics.
This is BCHA’s IPO. If you believe in this project, there might never be a better time to invest than right now.