Slow, empty blocks with a mysterious message: ABC’s new chain towards a rocky start

On November 15, 2020, the Bitcoin Cash blockchain underwent a network update and also a chain fork. While the Bitcoin Cash network has continued smoothly, the Pro Infrastructure Funding Plan (IFP) side of the ABC chain got off to a rough and extremely slow start. Since 15, the unnamed ABC chain has seen 197 blocks processed to date, as some miners are staking the hashrate on the network while keeping the new blockchain running.

Just recently Bitcoin Cash (BCH) underwent a network update and consensus split when the Bitcoin ABC full node project decided to keep the IFP in code. IFP was highly controversial, and during the months leading up to the fork, miners and major business operations began switching to the non-IFP BCHN node and other full node implementations.

The last common block of Bitcoin Cash on November 15, 2020 was up to block 661,647 and was mined by Binance. After that point at approximately 12:33 pm EST, the pro-IFP part of ABC continued as its own chain, as two distinct blocks were mined. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was 20 blocks ahead of the ABC chain at this time that afternoon.

To date, the ABC chain has processed 197 blocks, as miners have devoted to diminutive amount of SHA256 hashrate to the alternate network. Coin Dance statistics show that the ABC airdrop coin has around 0.13 exahash per second (EH / s), while BCH has 1.93 EH / s dedicated to the Bitcoin Cash chain.

While the ABC side found 197 blocks, BCH miners found 1093 blocks under the new consensus rules. At the time of publication, the ABC chain, otherwise known as “BAB”, has three known mining pools that stake the hashrate on the chain. Viabtc, BCHA Pro, and Mining-Dutch are mining the coin, along with a much larger hashrate of stealth miners.

Most of the BAB hashpower is creating empty blocks.

With a coinbase message that says:
/ 25 November 2020 /

– BAB / BCHA / ABC reorg risk warning – pic.twitter.com/5SskQ9dw8H

– Javier González González (@JavierGonzalez) November 21, 2020

More than 79% of ABC’s airdrop network is mined by an unknown group of miners. In the past 24 hours, the unknown hashrate has been pulling consecutive empty blocks. The empty ABC chain blocks also had a coinbase parameter message that once said: “/ Nov 25th 2020 /.” However, that coinbase message has changed in the past few hours.

On Sunday, Bitcoin Cash backer Javier González tweeted that the BAB chain was at extreme risk of a blockchain reorganization (reorg). “The empty BAB blocks now include this message: ‘> November 25, 2020: bcha dump | voluntarismo.dev: 6174 u / p: x / x,” wrote González.

The $ BCHA miner that previously mined empty blocks is now reporting “Nov 25th 2020: bcha dump”. The chain has been under attack for more than a day now. And it’s super cheap to attack – for example, a 51% attack would only cost ~ $ 300 an hour with the current hashrate. pic.twitter.com/go9rYSmHzA

– Nikita Zhavoronkov (@nikzh) November 22, 2020

A large number of people are speculating on something that will happen on November 25, but no one knows what to expect. Yesterday, during the run-up of the market, BCHA (chain ABC or BAB) was trading for $ 21 in USDT per coin and on Sunday the token is trading for $ 18.93 per unit on Coinex. If prices were to fluctuate around $ 18.93 per BAB coin, the token’s overall market capitalization would be around $ 350 million. This estimated market valuation would place the unnamed ABC chain token in 47th place in terms of market capitalization.

Meanwhile, a number of crypto enthusiasts have posted discussions on how to split coins. Bitcoinbch.com CEO Hayden Otto has posted a video on how to split tokens the easy way using the Coinex exchange. However, as the unknown miner has mined empty blocks and the blockchain is much slower than other networks, ABC chain confirmation times can be a very long wait.

Also, on November 20, 2020, the official Bitcoin ABC Twitter account tweeted on the new chain. The team explained that the official launch of the brand was coming soon.

“BCHA will soon be branded with the coin’s official name, logo and ticker. When it launches, we will contact exchanges and other companies directly to make them aware, “the ABC team revealed in a blog post. Unfortunately, the unnamed chain has no replay protection and the ABC developers casually addressed the concern by stating simply: “Splitting coins can be tricky, so be careful”.

What do you think of the developments of the ABC chain and the new network? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comments section below.

Image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Coin Dance Statistics,