Bitpanda’s position on the upcoming Bitcoin Cash (BCHN vs. BCHA) Hard Fork

One of our listed digital assets, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), will have its blockchain undergo a hard fork on the 15th of November, 2020 at around 13:00 CET. In connection to the protocol upgrade, there has been a proposed chain split between the two main BCH clients, Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHA) and Bitcoin Cash Node (BCHN). In this blog post, you find everything you need to know about this event as a Bitpanda user.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is undergoing another network upgrade in the form of a hard fork. Similar to the hard fork that happened exactly two years ago, there are again two competing proposals on how to move forward.

The Bitcoin Cash Node (BCHN) version of the network wants to introduce a new mining algorithm. On the other hand, the Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHA) proposed a different strategy that would redirect 8% of the network’s mining reward to its development team. Both approaches are somewhat controversial within the Bitcoin Cash community, but at the moment, it looks like BCHN will have more support from miners.

Following the same position we had on the BCH hard fork two years ago, Bitpanda will not support two coins in the future. Instead, we will only support the dominant network with higher market acceptance on major digital asset exchanges. To make a final decision on which one out of BCHN and BCHA will be dominant, we will closely monitor the development of both networks after the hard fork has taken place.

This also means that to have the option to have both coins credited, you have to withdraw all your Bitcoin Cash funds before the hard fork comes into effect on the 15th of November, 2020 at 13:00 CET to a wallet where you control your private keys before Bitpanda disables deposits and withdrawals on the 15th of November, 2020 at 10:00 CET.

We will resume deposits and withdrawals as soon as possible after we have made the decision on which network and coin to keep listed on Bitpanda. In the unlikely event of the hard fork resulting in two competing, similarly accepted chains, Bitpanda will find a suitable solution for all our users.

Please note that all of the above-mentioned points are also valid for the Bitpanda Crypto Index. This means the dominant coin will be included in the BCI5, BCI10, BCI25 or - in the unlikely event of two competing chains - we will find a solution to reflect this outcome.