On January 24, Bitcoin’s new hard fork named Bitcoin Atom (BCA) took place at block number 505888.

Bitcoin Atom (BCA), Bitcoin’s new hard fork, took place at block number 505888 on January 24. Such wallets as MyAtom Wallet, ESR Wallet, Bitcoin Atom, Coinomi and More TBA have already started supportin BCA. The Bitcoin Atomic futures are available as well.

As far back as 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto stated in the original Bitcoin white paper: “What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party.” Now, in 2018, that is not so.

The vast majority of Bitcoin transactions take place through centralized or centrally-managed exchanges or other types of “trusted third parties”. So, the original vision of Satoshi Nakamoto is negated. What is more, the current system often faces the problems connected with speed and cost of transactions.

Before Bitcoin’s new hard fork took place, the leader of the BCA development team said: “Centralization is less obvious but the problem with the main transfer of value in the crypto world, is exchanges. Centralized exchanges can be hacked or disappear or shut down by the regulators, and decentralized exchanges such as Etherdelta don’t trade bitcoin and only trade ERC-20 tokens. Even at that, they can get hacked.”

To handle these issues, Bitcoin Atom was designed. Its biggest benefit is that BCA removes the need for any centralized parties, including crypto exchanges.It is also an excellent invention implementing both on-chain and off-chain mechanisms to solve the dual problems of cost and speed.

Bitcoin Atom (BCA) is a SegWit enabled Bitcoin fork with atomic swaps, hybrid consensus and lightning network. BCA addresses several of Bitcoin’s scalability issues. It hosts features like atomic swaps, which allows users to instantly exchange tokens at minimal cost without the need of centralized exchanges or any other intermediaries.

Bitcoin Atom enables truly decentralized digital asset exchange by utilizing hash time-locked contracts (HTLCs) and its own HTLC API, giving independence from intermediaries and any centralized entities. BCA restores the peer-to-peer (P2P) aspect of bitcoin with Atomic Swaps and Lightning Network capability embedded directly into the coin.

The post from Medium states: “If you hold Bitcoin (BTC), you can get an equivalent amount of Bitcoin Atom (BCA) from one of our exchange or wallet partners. And whether or not you hold Bitcoin (BTC), you can purchase Bitcoin Atom (BCA) from any of our exchange partners.”

Some capabilities of BCA are coming soon. Bitcoin Atom’s development team is working on a special embedded toolkit for both on-chain and off-chain atomic swaps, allowing for exchanging any cryptocurrencies in a hassle-free way across different blockchains. Lightning Network off-chain swaps are scheduled to be launched in 2018.

Wallets supporting Bitcoin Atom include MyAtom Wallet, ESR Wallet, Bitcoin Atom, Coinomi and More TBA. The Bitcoin Atomic futures have already started trading. According to CoinMarketCap, their current price is $414,69.