Bitcoin Cash (BCH) received a serious blow to its reputation following the notorious hard fork. The price of BCH/USD tumbled double digits on major exchanges. If this hard fork had occurred in the same way as Bitcoin Cash (BCH) forked off Bitcoin (BTC), it might have been a non-event and people would then look at Bitcoin ABC or Bitcoin SV in terms of their own merits. The way both parties turned the event into a Western Duel convinced a lot of people early on that no matter who ends up winning, it is going to expose a lot and people are not going to like it. Sure enough, the same thing happened. Dr. Craig S. Wright, proponent of Satoshi Vision (SV) came gun blazing at Jihan Wu (Cofounder of Bitmain), proponent of ABC.

Jihan Wu had a lot of supporters on his side. Almost all big exchanges like Bitfinex, Kraken and Coinbase were either directly supporting Bitcoin ABC or learning towards them indirectly. Bitcoin SV, on the other hand, had a few powerful mining pools on its side but no major exchanges. It was clear from the very beginning that Jihan Wu would eventually come up as the winner. The big players in the industry were all cheering for ABC and very vocal against SV. Things got serious when Dr. Craig S. Wright aka Professor Faustus announced that he would not mind selling his stash of Bitcoin (BTC) to fund his war chest, even if it means dragging Bitcoin (BTC) down to $1,000. The threat was very serious and a lot of people criticized Craig S. Wright for adopting this kind of an approach.

Many Twitter users asked him to reconsider and think about its impacts on the price of Bitcoin (BTC). Meanwhile, Jihan Wu and Roger Ver were determined to win the war at all costs. Craig Wright and his team knew full well that Jihan Wu and Roger Ver may end up directing some of their or their customers’ hash power towards Bitcoin Cash (BCH) if things get serious. The way they were trying to scare them with legal action made it clear that they cannot actually do anything about it. When the last block was mined before the fork by ABC Team, they claimed victory. They were at a 5 blocks lead after the upgrade. SV Team took to Twitter and kept saying things like it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Some even said that Jihan Wu and Roger Ver cannot use their customers’ hash power forever.

Chart for BCH/BTC (1W)

For a while, it seemed real that Craig S. Wright and his team were actually determined to play it long term and turn the battle into a war. However, the next morning ABC was at a 45 blocks lead against SV and it became clear that it was all empty threats. SV could not afford to fight this war for long. In fact, neither ABC nor SV can afford to do that. At some point in the future, Jihan Wu and his team might slow down once they are way ahead, but the fact remains that the damage to Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is already done. All the infighting and the damage done to the whole market by two people exposed the cracks within the foundations of Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Apparently, it is not as decentralized as some may like to claim.