The 2017 implementation of Segregated Witness (SegWit) and subsequent hard fork that created Bitcoin Cash fundamentally shaped Bitcoin’s trajectory toward its current market dominance. SegWit reduced miner control over transaction processing while enabling off-chain scaling solutions like the Lightning Network, effectively enhancing Bitcoin’s scalability and decentralization.
Bitcoin Cash emerged from a contentious split over Bitcoin’s block size limit, with proponents advocating for larger block sizes to boost transaction capacity. Market performance since the fork demonstrates stark divergence: Bitcoin’s price surged approximately 4,200% from roughly $2,718 to approximately $115,000, while Bitcoin Cash valuations remained relatively stagnant over the same period.
Current market cap data reinforces this contrast, with Bitcoin exceeding $2.2 trillion versus Bitcoin Cash at approximately $10.9 billion. Core philosophical differences persist, centering on blockchain scaling priorities – Bitcoin maintains emphasis on security and decentralized store-of-value properties, while Bitcoin Cash continues to prioritize transactional capacity via on-chain scaling.