Keeping its main purpose in mind, this hard fork of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was aptly named “Bitcoin Satoshi Vision” after the vision of its mysterious inventor and creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin SV to enable it to become a more technologically advanced version of the original Bitcoin protocol. A feat that he has more or less achieved considering the advanced scalability of the new chain. 

In this guide, we’ll be taking you through Bitcoin’s evolution and how it birthed Bitcoin SV, while also deciphering how Bitcoin SV fits into the current crypto landscape. 

Bitcoin's Evolution and the Need for Forks

In January of 2009, the framework and initial vision for what Bitcoin was supposed to be was penned down in white paper by its inventor Dr. Craig S.Wright titled “Bitcoin: A peer to peer electronic cash system”. 

Fast forward to 4 months later and the first open source Bitcoin client software was released to the general public. 

Origins of Bitcoin

Early in its development stages, the Bitcoin network could only handle the transaction data of an extremely small community. This scalability constraint was not a concern at that time because the network primarily served a small community of programmers and cryptography enthusiasts.

However, as Bitcoin gained popularity, more users joined the blockchain, leading to a growth in transaction volume that the young network couldn’t keep up with.

This led to an increase in the processing time of each transaction, with the belief that Bitcoin transactions may start taking days or weeks to complete if the scalability issue was left unchecked. In a bid to find a solution to the scalability problem, the Bitcoin network went through multiple hard forks. Eventually leading to the creation of Bitcoin SV.

Explaining Hard Forks

Understanding what hard forks are and how they’re caused is integral to understanding the creation of Bitcoin SV. Basically, there are two types of forks that can be applied on a blockchain:

One of the first proposed solutions to the scalability problem of the Bitcoin blockchain was called Segregated Witness (SegWit). SegWit basically deals with rearranging signature data — like proof of ownership of a cryptocurrency — in a more efficient manner to ultimately increase transaction speed. SegWit is known as more of a soft fork as it's a very minor change to the protocol’s software that doesn’t alter any major operations of the network. 

Hard forks on the other hand, are the creation of an extra chain that follows a different protocol altogether. This phenomenon occurs when a new update to the protocol causes an immense disparity between the previous protocol and the new protocol. Big enough to cause a philosophical rift between the community. 

As a result, instead of trying to force the new upgrade, the community decides to implement a hard fork and create a new blockchain instead, along with a new underlying cryptocurrency. The nodes on the existing blockchain that accept the update are transferred or migrated over to the new chain. 

Bitcoin Cash and the Road to Bitcoin SV

It's pretty well documented that the creation of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was the result of a hard fork from the original Bitcoin blockchain. However, what’s important is understanding how Bitcoin Cash solved the scalability problem. Especially considering that Bitcoin SV itself is a hard fork of BCH, designed to improve upon the scalability problem even further. 

The primary desire behind the creation of BCH was to increase the number of transactions per second by increasing the speed at which transactions were processed on the chain. To achieve this, a radical measure was instituted to increase Bitcoin’s maximum block size from 1MB to 8MB (later increased to 32MB). Since this drastic change was difficult to implement for plenty of nodes on the existing chain, a hard fork was implemented to create Bitcoin Cash as its own blockchain. 

Additionally, Bitcoin Cash’s core development team also took steps to reduce the total data that needed verification when processing a transaction. Thereby increasing the speed at which transactions are processed even further. Bitcoin Cash is currently capable of processing 116 transactions per second. This laid the groundwork for yet another hard fork, one that led to the creation of Bitcoin SV. 

Understanding Bitcoin SV's Vision

Like BCH, Bitcoin SV came into existence once a hard fork was implemented on an existing blockchain. This time Bitcoin Cash itself gave way for the creation of the new chain. With that said, the reasons for implementing the Bitcoin SV hard fork were quite different in nature. 

The core development team behind Bitcoin SV believed that the original Bitcoin chain was highly flawed and thus decided to create a chain that better represents Satoshi’s vision. Hence why the new chain is called Bitcoin Satoshi Vision. This team attributed the original Bitcoin chain’s outdated and flawed nature to soft forks like SegWit.

Their reasoning revolved around Satoshi’s vision and how the only scalability upgrade that satisfies his vision is increasing block size. Any other upgrades or methods to improve scalability were going against the original Bitcoin protocol the creator envisioned. 

For a long time, the creation of Bitcoin Cash was thought to be an upgrade that felt true to Satoshi’s vision, as all it did was build on the existing block sizes of the existing Bitcoin chain. However, after a while Bitcoin Cash started continuously making structural changes which resulted in another hard fork and in turn the creation of Bitcoin SV. 

Proponents of the original Bitcoin blockchain now believe Bitcoin SV to be the true continuation of the original Bitcoin protocol.

Key Features of Bitcoin SV

Now that you’re familiar with the ideology behind the creation of Bitcoin SV, let’s take a look at some of the blockchain’s key features to gauge if they fall true to Satoshi’s vision. 

Larger Block Size

As mentioned above, the core development team of Bitcoin SV believe increasing block sizes to be the only acceptable way to improve scalability. To that end, Bitcoin SV was created with an initial block size of 128MB. 

However, the development team wasn’t satisfied with that and have since increased the chain’s block size to 2GB. This increase in block size has led to a further increase in the speed at which transactions are processed. Miners of the Bitcoin SV cryptocurrency particularly have benefited from this change as they’ve been awarded block rewards for mining new blocks. 

Even after the block rewards had depleted, miners still had a strong incentive to continue mining and uncover more blocks. This was because the more transactions were generated and successfully processed per second, the greater the transaction fees earned by the miners.

Focus on Scalability and Fast Transactions

Every hard fork implemented in the Bitcoin blockchain was a bid to try and solve the scalability problems in the earliest Bitcoin blockchain. These hard forks produced Bitcoin Cash (BCH) with its upgraded block size and later on, Bitcoin SV, that showcased even larger blocks. 

Now, what these incredibly large blocks — with each having a size of 2GB — do is speed up the rate at which transactions take place. Eventually resulting in an increase in the number of transactions per second. 

Even now, the development team at Bitcoin SV keeps a constant check on the number of transactions being made and are on the verge of implementing yet another upgrade to the network’s block size. 

The developers at Bitcoin are also working on a simpler verification process for transactions made on the chain. This effort aims to further increase the speed at which transactions are completed even further. 

Emphasis on Maintaining the Original Satoshi Vision

During the early days of Bitcoin SV, the creators of the new chain established that soft forks or any updates like SegWit or Lightning Network were a deviation from the original vision of Satoshi. 

They believed that these modifications were a threat to the validity and stability of the original Bitcoin protocol. According to them, the only acceptable change to the original Bitcoin block chain was an increase in block size. 

To this day, the blockchain's developers remain vigilant for any modification or update related to off-chain processing solutions. Keeping all of that in mind, we’d certainly say that the Bitcoin SV’s development team and community are focused and steadfast in maintaining the integrity of Satoshi's original vision. 

Controversies and Criticisms

While Bitcoin SV still remains the chain that produces the fastest transactions among all Bitcoin blockchains, there’s some controversies and criticisms dragging its name down. In this section we’ll be taking a look at the most major ones:

Controversial Creator

A huge mystery surrounding the creation of the original Bitcoin blockchain is the identity of its creator. The man who has supposedly started the cryptocurrency revolution has been up till now, a mysterious, unidentifiable entity. 

The only thing we know about him is that he goes by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Multiple leading personalities in the blockchain space have been credited with being Satoshi Nakamoto. However, all have denied the claim. All apart from the creator and inventor of Bitcoin SV, Craig Wright. 

He has publicly claimed that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, but so far no one has been able to find any real evidence connecting him to that name. Thus, many people believe that his claims may not be true. As a matter of fact, Wright’s claims have actually landed him in hot water and controversies, usually blockchain-related. 

Major Criticisms

It's no secret that Bitcoin SV has plenty of well wishers in the overarching crypto space. Mostly because of the speed at which it processes transactions. Having said that, there are also some that have deemed Bitcoin SV’s hard fork into another chain “unnecessary” and “concerning”. 

Some individuals believe that if BTC had never been divided into three separate hard forked blockchains — it would’ve risen in value even further. However, what they may not understand is that the original Bitcoin blockchain was finding it increasingly difficult to accommodate the growing number of users flowing into the network regularly. 

If nothing was done to make the Bitcoin network more stable, each transaction could take days or even weeks, which would’ve effectively been the end for BTC. Some users recently have also shown concern about Bitcoin SV being the most “centralized” chain in the crypto space. These concerns started popping up when Taal.com — a mining pool — mined more than half of the blocks created in one specific week in October, 50.2% to be exact. 

Now, these concerns would be warranted if Taal.com continued to mine more than half of the blocks created in the entire month. But, since this was just an isolated incident, we don’t think anyone should look too much into it. 

Bitcoin SV in the Current Crypto Landscape

Bitcoin SV’s detractors often argue that both the cryptocurrency and blockchain are in decline. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth, especially considering the cryptocurrency’s performance in the month of October 2023. 

The cryptocurrency saw multiple surges in price in the spot market. In fact, its price actually rose 90% in the month of October, rising from $30 to $58. It's also widely hailed for its incredible speed in processing transactions. 

Also, in its initial stages Bitcoin SV didn’t have much of a community around it. However, as individuals began to see the utility in the chain, more and more have flocked to its support. In fact, the community’s support and overall support for Bitcoin SV is so great that it scored a 53 (neutral) rating on Binance. 

Compared to both the other Bitcoin branches, Bitcoin SV brings exceptional transaction speed. Better than both of its sister branches. More than that, its creator’s vision was to create a blockchain that becomes the one global Bitcoin blockchain and judging from its recent performances in the spot market, we’d say it's well on its way to earn that moniker. 

Conclusion

To recap, the Bitcoin SV blockchain was created through a hard fork of the Bitcoin Cash blockchain. The hard fork led to the creation of a new blockchain, which its creator deemed as the one true continuation of the original Bitcoin protocol. 

Bitcoin SV is considered one of the largest Bitcoin forks and proof-of-work cryptocurrencies in 2023, which is no easy feat considering the competition in the crypto world. However, just because it's doing well right now doesn’t mean it’ll continue to do well forever. Thus, it's up to you to learn about crypto markets, delve deeper into Bitcoin SV and gather information about how a blockchain’s value is evaluated.