The crypto community heaved a sigh of relief after the hash wars of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) ended on the 23rd of November.
The Hash Wars started on the 14th of November, as a result of a disagreement between the two factions of the BCH community on which upgrade to implement. This then led to a big battle between one camp led by Craig Wright (Bitcoin SV) and another by Roger Ver and Jihan Wu. The two camps eventually came to an agreement to fork the BCH blockchain.
Mr. Wu is the present CEO of Bitmain. Bitmain specializes in designing ASIC chips for Bitcoin mining. The company also operates two of the largest Bitcoin mining pools: Antpool and BTC.com.
The initial signs of trouble at Bitmain began before the Hash Wars when it was reported that Jihan Wu had lost his seat as the board executive director of the company after a board reshuffle. He was replaced by Zhan Ketuan.
We had no idea as to why the reshuffle was done but on the same day, 90,000 miners were hurriedly deployed in China’s far-western region of Xinjiang to mine Bitcoin Cash ABC, which is the current BCH.
According to research by a Bitmex team, the joint loss by both camps due to the BCH hash wars could well have exceeded $10 Million. Bitmain has also closed down its Israeli Blockchain development center, citing crypto market conditions.
Soon after the hash wars, UnitedCorp launched a suit against Bitmain, Bitcoin.com, Roger Ver, Kraken Bitcoin Exchange and others, claiming they had hijacked the Bitcoin Cash Network after the November 15th hard-fork.
Additional rumors circulating on Crypto Twitter indicate that Bitmain might be liquidating its BCH stash to pay off supplier debts totaling $600 Million.
If the reports of Bitmain’s financial woes turn out to be true, it explains why Bitcoin Cash has continually fallen from the number 4 spot on coinmarketcap.com, to its current number 7 ranking. Before the hash wars, BCH was trading at around $500. The digital asset is now valued at $86 indicating a 83% drop in value in a period of one month.
