The cryptocurrency world held its collective breath in November 2018 as Bitcoin Cash (BCH) prepared for one of the most contentious hard forks in blockchain history. Scheduled for November 15, the upgrade would split BCH into two competing chains — Bitcoin Cash ABC and Bitcoin Cash SV — in what became known as the “hash war,” a battle that would ripple across the entire crypto market.
TL;DR
- Bitcoin Cash scheduled a hard fork for November 15, 2018, resulting in a chain split
- BCH ABC (backed by Roger Ver and Jihan Wu) faced off against BCH SV (backed by Craig Wright and Calvin Ayre)
- BCH traded at $516.31, down 2.37% in 24 hours as uncertainty mounted
- Bitcoin held at $6,371 amid concerns about hash rate diversion from BTC to BCH mining
- Major exchanges threw their support behind the BCH ABC implementation
The Battle Lines Drawn
The November 15 fork was supposed to be a routine six-month upgrade for Bitcoin Cash. Instead, deep ideological divisions within the community produced two irreconcilable visions for the future of the network. On one side stood Bitcoin Cash ABC, the original implementation led by developer Amaury Sechet and backed by Bitmain co-founder Jihan Wu and bitcoin.com CEO Roger Ver. Their upgrade introduced Canonical Transaction Ordering (CTOR), which would force transactions to be included in blocks in a specific order — a change the development team argued would enable better scaling improvements down the road. They also planned to add new scripting capabilities for oracles.
On the opposing side, Craig Wright — the controversial Australian who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto — along with billionaire Calvin Ayre and his media outlet CoinGeek, championed Bitcoin Cash SV (Satoshi’s Vision). Their proposal sought to restore Bitcoin Cash to the original Bitcoin protocol version 0.1.0 from 2009, with a massive default block size increase to 128 MB and the removal of script size limits.
Hash Power Becomes the Weapon
What made this fork different from previous blockchain splits was the aggressive deployment of mining hash power as a tool of corporate warfare. Both sides invested heavily in hash rate to ensure their chain would emerge as the dominant one. Bitmain reportedly shifted significant mining resources from the Bitcoin network to support the BCH ABC chain, a move that had broader market implications.
The diversion of hash power from Bitcoin contributed to downward pressure on BTC, which was already trading well below its late-2017 highs. As of November 12, Bitcoin sat at $6,371, down 0.42% over 24 hours, with a market capitalization of approximately $110.7 billion. The timing was particularly painful for a market still reeling from a year-long bear trend.
Exchange Support and Market Impact
Most major cryptocurrency exchanges aligned with the BCH ABC implementation ahead of the fork, providing significant institutional and infrastructural backing. Implementations like Bitcoin Unlimited, BCash, and Bitprim also made their software compatible with BCH ABC, creating a broad coalition of technical support.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin Cash SV found its strongest backing from CoinGeek’s mining operations and a handful of smaller pools loyal to Wright’s vision. Despite the weaker exchange support, Wright and Ayre showed no signs of backing down, threatening to continue mining their chain regardless of hash rate disadvantages.
For holders, the fork created both opportunity and confusion. Anyone holding BCH before the snapshot would receive equivalent amounts of both BCH ABC and BCH SV tokens. However, the practical challenge of safely claiming and trading both assets — particularly during a period of extreme network instability — posed significant risks.
Broader Market Context
The hash war unfolded against a grim broader market backdrop. Ethereum traded at $210.42, XRP at $0.52, and the total crypto market cap had contracted dramatically from its January 2018 peak. Trading volumes on major exchanges like Kraken showed heightened activity in BCH pairs, with $15.8 million in BCH volume on that platform alone on November 12.
The conflict also raised fundamental questions about governance in cryptocurrency networks. When disagreements over protocol direction could not be resolved through consensus, the result was a costly chain split that diluted the original project’s value and diverted resources away from actual development and adoption.
Why This Matters
The Bitcoin Cash hash war of November 2018 was more than a technical disagreement — it was a stress test for decentralized governance itself. It demonstrated that even in a system designed to be trustless, personality-driven conflicts and corporate interests can fracture communities and destroy billions in market value. The war also proved that hash power is not merely a security mechanism but a political weapon, one that can reshape entire ecosystems when wielded aggressively. For investors and builders alike, the episode served as a stark reminder that technical fundamentals alone don’t determine a cryptocurrency’s trajectory — human drama does.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments carry significant risk. Always conduct your own research before making investment decisions.