Bitcoin Fork Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Activates Major Upgrade: Details

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As a seasoned researcher with a keen interest in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, I find the recent activation of the May 2025 upgrade to Bitcoin Cash particularly intriguing. The combination of the Targeted Virtual Machine Limits CHIP and BigInt CHIP upgrades promises significant advancements in contract efficiency, scalability, and security – features that are essential for any cryptocurrency aiming to compete in today’s fast-paced digital economy.

According to Bitcoin Cash developer Jason Dreyzehner, the essential update for Bitcoin Cash scheduled for May 2025 is now live and functioning on the primary network.

Just announced on Twitter: The May 2025 update for Bitcoin Cash has begun on Chipnet at block number 227,228.

This upgrade includes two Bitcoin Cash Improvement Proposals (CHIPs) which are Targeted Virtual Machine Limits CHIP and BigInt CHIP: High-Precision Arithmetic for Bitcoin Cash.

❓ Exciting news! As of May 2025, the Bitcoin Cash update has been activated on the chipnet at block number 227,228. 🎉 (0000000000b8dc4625844fa367b12317645fac7c9afbc5fb8def4025a6822c86)

This update incorporates two proposals for Bitcoin Cash Improvements (CHIPs):

Proposal for Setting Virtual Machine Limits (VM Limits CHIP)

The VM Limits proposal…

— Jason Dreyzehner (@bitjson) November 15, 2024

The adjustment in the Targeted Virtual Machine Limits or VM Limits for CHIP significantly enhances Bitcoin Cash’s ability to withstand denial-of-service attacks. This improvement increases the computational power available for genuine transactions by over 100 times, and decreases the maximum computational load on nodes by half. By reducing unnecessary workload, this adjustment makes contracts easier to understand, simplifies their audits, and ultimately enhances overall security.

This update enhances the effectiveness of contracts, thereby making crucial applications more feasible. For instance, it supports post-quantum cryptography, robust escrow mechanisms, settlement tactics, zero-knowledge proofs, homomorphic encryption, among other advanced technologies. These advancements are vital for the future security and competitive edge of Bitcoin Cash in areas like privacy, scalability, and transaction validation.

Ultimately, this update sets a higher standard with the introduction of innovative tools and a method for cross-platform benchmarking that consistently evaluates node performance.

BigInt CHIP upgrade

The second enhancement, known as BigInt CHIP: Precision Mathematics for Bitcoin Cash, provides over a 10x decrease in contract size and turns theoretical applications into immediate possibilities. This encompasses advanced automated market-making and exchange mechanisms, decentralized stablecoins, collateralized loan systems, cross-chain and sidechain connectors, zero-knowledge proofs, post-quantum encryption, homomorphic encryption, and numerous other technologies.

This update maximizes Bitcoin Cash’s inherently more scalable design to deliver mathematical abilities superior to Ethereum, offering features like high-performance ‘hardware-level’ operations, more efficient and cost-effective transaction processing.

Now, the features we have are accessible for Bitcoin Cash smart contracts on their primary layer, maintaining censorship resistance and allowing cross-contract compatibility without escalating computational demands. This means that Bitcoin Cash full nodes can still run efficiently on affordable consumer hardware.

Essentially, these changes are intended to boost the functionalities of Bitcoin Cash. The value of the Bitcoin Cash variant (Bitcoin Cash, or BCH) showed a modest increase following the announcement of the upgrade. Currently, as I write this, BCH has climbed by 5% over the past 24 hours, reaching $442, and marking two consecutive days of growth since November 15 if today also ends in an uptrend.

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2024-11-16 14:50