Bitcoin Cash Update: Multi-Party Escrow, Vitalik Suggests BCH as Data Layer for ETH

Another week has passed for the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) community and as usual, there’s been a bunch of announcements and developments. BCH supporters this week saw the release of a multi-party onchain escrow system, Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin discussed using the BCH chain as a data layer, and more BCH-accepting merchants were onboarded.

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The cryptocurrency ecosystem is filled with new applications and developments nearly every day and many announcements stem from the BCH community. Last week we mentioned the first exchange-traded product (ETP) tracking the performance of bitcoin cash, Jonathan Toomim’s scaling benchmark, and how the rising transaction volume on the BCH blockchain makes the network one of the most valuable chains according to the founder of Ryan Research, Peter Ryan. Since then there’s been a slew of new announcements and developments within the BCH environment.

Multi-Party Onchain Escrow Transactions Using OP_Checkdatasig

On July 12, the cofounder of Cointext, Vin Armani, announced the release of “Jeton Lib,” a Bitcore library extension that provides users with the ability to create multi-party onchain escrow transactions using OP_Checkdatasig. “I want to see more people experimenting with BCH power,” Armani stated during the release announcement. According to the Jeton Lib documentation on Github, it explains that the BCH protocol has a unique script functionality that’s not available on other Bitcoin forks like the opcode OP_Checkdatasig.

“This functionality allows Bitcoin Cash users to participate in onchain, noncustodial escrow transactions and more,” Jeton Lib’s readme summary details. Developer Chris Troutner called the work a “game changer” and mentioned how the BCH peer-to-peer marketplace Local.Bitcoin.com uses OP_Checkdatasig for secure escrow transactions. Armani wholeheartedly believes that noncustodial escrow is a very big deal when it comes to the crypto industry. On Twitter Armani insisted:

Non-Custodial Escrow — This is the biggest immediate win in my opinion. Local.Bitcoin.com has implemented the first crack at this. In its final form, this will be totally peer to peer and done 100% from mobile wallets. This allows prediction markets of all types — Disruptive.

Onboarding More Merchants

This past week, North Carolina resident and BCH supporter Laura Young onboarded a new BCH merchant in her region. The local tea house called Sipsum in Maggie Valley, NC now accepts BCH for services and goods thanks to Young’s persistence. “I just onboarded a new merchant to BCH today — Congratulations Sipsum in Maggie Valley, NC welcome to economic freedom,” Young said on Twitter. Electron Cash founder Jonald Fyookball complimented Young’s work and said: “Great job Laura — Adoption is everything.” “That means a lot coming from you, thank you,” Young responded.

On July 10, Bitcoin.com’s podcast host Matt Aaron revealed the first florist in Canada to accept bitcoin cash. “If you are in Quebec, order some flowers for your loved ones with BCH,” Aaron tweeted to his followers. BCH fans can visit the L’atelier Floral’s website to shop for flowers, join flower workshops and order floral design services.

Moreover, on the Reddit forum r/btc, the BCH supporter u/Neonwasteland explained that the website Acceptbitcoin.cash now has 1116 online merchants listed in a “Merchant Monday” post. “There are 1294 brick-and-mortar merchants listed on Marco Coino, which is 43 more than last week,” u/Neonwasteland noted. “And you can find 1128 merchants of all types on Green Pages, which is 1 more than last week.”

Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin Discusses Using the Bitcoin Cash Network for a Data Layer

In a Ethresear.ch (research blog) post, Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin proposed using the Bitcoin Cash network as a short-term data availability layer for Ethereum. In the long term, Buterin details that scaling the Ethereum network may require testing data throughput using an alternative blockchain.

“Particularly [blockchains] that have lower transaction fees per byte than Ethereum, as the data layer — Bitcoin Cash arguably fits the bill perfectly for a few reasons.” Buterin listed four specific reasons as to why the BCH chain may fit the bill as a secondary data layer which includes:

High data throughput (32 MB per 600 sec = 53333 bytes per sec, compared to ethereum ~8kb per sec which is already being used by applications) Very low fees (whereas BTC would be prohibitively expensive) We already have all the machinery we need to verify Bitcoin Cash blocks inside of ethereum thanks to http://btcrelay.org/; we just need to repoint it to the BCH chain and turn it back on. Verifying BCH blocks is also quite cheap compared to eg. ETC blocks The BCH community seems to be friendly to people using their chain for whatever they want as long as they pay the tx fees (eg. https://memo.cash)

Cashshuffle Blasts Through More Than 100,000 BCH Shuffled

Since March 27, the bitcoin cash shuffling application Cashshuffle has mixed 101,718 BCH according to statistics. That’s a whopping $31.9 million dollars (at the time of publication) shuffled by participants using the bitcoin cash mixing protocol.

On Twitter and BCH-centric forums, Cashshuffle fans were thrilled with the milestone on July 15. BCH proponent and developer @Acidsploit said on Twitter: “We just blasted through 100,000 BCH shuffled — More bitcoin cash made fungible every day thanks to Cashshuffle. Get started now at Cashshuffle.com, because what you do with your money is your business — Cashshuffle helps keep it that way.” On the Reddit forum r/btc, Electron Cash developer and Cashshuffle engineer, Jonald Fyookball, was delighted with the news and stated:

That’s quite a milestone — This proves Cashshuffle is indeed a highly used solution, not a nerd-only curiosity. And I think we surpassed Wasabi for total coins shuffled.

A Recurring Payment Plugin for Electron Cash Designed for Noncustodial Patronate

On July 14, software developer Karol Trzeszczkowski launched a new plugin for the Electron Cash wallet that enables recurring payments in a noncustodial fashion. After the Patreon-like application Bitbacker project went silent, Trzeszczkowski explained that the crypto community suspected it was an exit scam. Trzeszczkowski told r/btc forum participants that he was inspired by the Bitbacker situation and designed a covenant-based smart contract solution called Mecenas. The open source tool operates from the Electron Cash wallet and lets you establish a direct mecenas-protege relationship with others, Trzeszczkowski stated.

“Mecenas was created as a solution for bitcoin patronate exit scam risk. The plugin creates and manages a contract that shifts the responsibility for making the transaction from the sender to the receiver with time and value restriction,” the project’s Github documentation details.

Trzeszczkowski is also the creator of Last Will, a smart contract program for the inheritance of bitcoin cash. The Last Will protocol is also an Electron Cash plugin, but allows users to create and manage BCH endowments. The Mecenas covenant-based smart contract system is done onchain, in a noncustodial manner, and is permissionless by design. “The contract is defined by a special address that is cryptographically determined by the contract itself,” the Mecenas document reads. Trzeszczkowski revealed that he’s also mentioned the project to the CEO of Honest.cash and the creator of Cashies.org as well to discuss the possibility of integrating Mecenas in the future for a patronate bitcoin cash service.

Bitcoin Cash Developers Public Meeting #12

On July 11, the 12th Bitcoin Cash Development video meeting for 2019 took place in order to discuss plans for the upcoming November 2019 Upgrade. Developers who participated in the meeting include Amaury Séchet, Jason B. Cox, Antony Zegers, Mark Lundeberg, Emil Oldenburg, and Andrea Suisani. Bitcoin Cash proponents interested in reading the draft specification summary for the next upgrade can review it now. Upgrade features proposed include enabling Schnorr signatures for OP_Checkmultisig(Verify), implementing a minimal push and minimal number encoding rules in Script, enforcing NULLDUMMY and changing the rule that limits signature operations in script. During the meeting, the developers also discussed the upgrade’s timeline and asked people to review the code before the feature freeze on August 15, 2019. Draft specifications are up for review at Bitcoincash.org and during the meeting, programmers conversed about what needs to be done in order to remove the 25 chained transaction limit as well.

A Steadfast Focus Toward Infrastructure Growth and Merchant Adoption

It was a busy week for BCH fans and it’s hard for everyone to keep track of all the different announcements and developments. Meanwhile, BCH market prices have dipped in value over the last seven days as well. At the current market value between $310 – 325, BCH has lost 22% over the course of the week. However, most digital assets are down by 10-40% this week depending on the coin, as the overall cryptoconomy’s market valuation has plummeted to $284 billion. Despite the price downturn, BCH supporters still show a lot of optimism in contrast to other crypto communities. The latest developments revealed this week indicate passionate proponents have continued to bolster BCH infrastructure growth and merchant adoption instead of focusing in on market speculation.

What do you think about all the developments within the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: This editorial is intended for informational purposes only. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the mentioned companies or any of their affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com or the author is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Image credits: Shutterstock, Github, Hifromlaura1, Twitter, Pixabay, and Ethresear.ch.

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