What's The Difference Between Bitcoin And Bitcoin Cash? Which Is The Better Investment?

Bitcoin is getting tons of headlines and investor attention in 2017 as it pushes toward the $10,000 level for the first time. Some investors are hoping that bitcoin offshoot Bitcoin Cash will ultimately be the better play.

Here’s a look at the difference between bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash and one expert’s opinion on where each cryptocurrency is headed.

What Is Bitcoin Cash?

Back in August, bitcoin investors were closely watching what was described as a “fork” in the bitcoin blockchain, the public ledger of all bitcoin transactions. Bitcoin forked when supporters could not agree on potential changes to the size of Bitcoin blocks.

Bitcoin has always had 1 MB block sizes, but Bitcoin Cash supporters felt a larger block size could better serve the currency during its scaling process. On August 1, the bitcoin blockchain forked into two different chains. Bitcoin still uses 1 MB blocks, while the newly-formed Bitcoin Cash has 8 MB block sizes.

A second proposed fork in the original bitcoin, referred to as Segwit2x, was cancelled earlier this month. The Segwit2x fork would have created a third currency with a 2 MB block size. Since the cancellation of Segwit2x, the price of Bitcoin Cash has skyrocketed.

Which Is The Better Investment?

The ultimate winner between bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash hinges on which cryptocurrency becomes the most popular and widely-used option. Despite its block size disadvantage, Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Graham says the original bitcoin may simply have too much of a lead to be overtaken.

“While some have gone so far as to proclaim that Bitcoin Cash will ultimately overtake bitcoin as 'the bitcoin,' the overall consensus appears to be that BTC is unlikely to give up its spot as the #1 cryptoasset (BTC makes up ~56% of the combined market cap of all cryptos, compared to just ~8% for BCH) anytime soon,” Graham said earlier this month.

After an incredible run, the Bitcoin Investment Trust GBTC is up 1,120 percent in 2017.

Related Links:

A Guide To Who Loves And Hates Cryptocurrency

How Bitcoin Cash Could Supplant The Original Crypto