Bitcoin
Cash Went Through Its First Block Reward Halving
The Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
blockchain has undergone its first block reward halving. At block height 630,000 at roughly 12:20
UTC on Wednesday, April 8, the halving was triggered and block rewards on the
cryptocurrency dropped from 12.5 BCH to 6.25 BCH per block.
The halving’s immediate effects
are a drop in revenue for miners competing for the block rewards, but some
analysts believe these events lead to price rises as demand for the
cryptocurrency doesn’t drop, but its supply is abruptly cut in half.
Ahead of the halving the mining
difficulty and hashrate on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain have been on a
downward trend, along with the cryptocurrency’s price. The halving hasn’t so
far had any significant effects on the price of BCH, which dropped from a
$500 high seen earlier this year to about $140 after the March 12-13 market
crash.
Since then the cryptocurrency,
along with the rest of the crypto market, has been recovering. It’s worth
noting there was an uptick in the number of transactions being processed on
BCH ahead of the halving, as seen in the chart above.
The Bitcoin Cash halving event
foreshadows the halving schedule for the Bitcoin (BTC) network in about 35
days. Bitcoin’s hashrate has been rising over the last few months, as miners
are betting on the cryptocurrency ahead of the event. Bitcoin SV, a fork of
Bitcoin Cash, will undergo its block reward halving later today.
