Data Over Drama: Bitcoin Cash Versus Bitcoin Core Transactions

Over the past few weeks, people have been complaining about high transaction fees and slow confirmation times on the bitcoin core network. Since then other coins like bitcoin cash, dash, and litecoin have seen price spikes and more people utilizing these blockchains for lesser fees and more reliable settlement times.

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Just by quickly visiting a few forums and surfing social media channels, anyone can tell there’s a ferocious debate still lingering about blockchain scaling. Currently, much of the discussion has been revolving around the Bitcoin core network (BTC) and the forked adversary the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) protocol. Without getting into the debate, we’ve decided to utilize some data aggregated from multiple cryptocurrency analysis websites to visualize just how different these two networks are.

Using BTC or BCH the Current Statistics Without All the Drama

Bitcoin Core (BTC/XBT) 12/21/17

Currently, the Bitcoin core network is the most used as far as transaction percentages are concerned. According to Blockchain.info’s data, Bitcoin’s throughput has been averaging roughly 300,000-450,000 confirmed transactions a day.

The transaction queue otherwise known as the mempool is full, and has over 270,000 unconfirmed transactions at press time, according to Blockchain.info data. Johoe’s mempool statistics also shows the bitcoin core mempool is full, and the website states “low fee transactions are evicted” from being processed on the network.

Bitcoin core mempool according to Johoe’s data.

Fees for the bitcoin core network according to Earn’s fee statistics show the median transaction size of 226 bytes results in a fee of 223,740 satoshis ($34USD). Bitinfocharts records an average median fee of $41 per transaction. The aggregated average recorded by Bitcoinfees.info details the average bitcoin fee globally is $37 per transaction.

The amount of transactions (tx) per day, per block, and the fee rate per tx has led to an average processing time of 34 to 1,188 minutes according to Blockchain.info. Johoe’s mempool data reveals transactions with lower fees either are getting evicted or transactions are taking several days for confirmation.

Bitcoin Cash (BCC/BCH) 12/21/2017

At the moment, the Bitcoin Cash network has fewer transactions per day than the Bitcoin core blockchain. However according to Bitinfocharts, the BCH chain has seen a spike in 24-hour transaction count, as there are 57,000 to 127,000 transactions recorded daily. At the current trajectory, the BCH network is about to surpass the daily transaction rate of the Litecoin protocol.

Bitcoin cash mempool according to Johoe’s data.

The Bitcoin Cash chain doesn’t have as many data logs recording its mempool, but Johoe’s ‘Cash’ mempool data reveals the transaction queue is cleared quite frequently. Johoe’s data indicates both the mempool size in MB is much lower for the BCH network and for pending transactions fees. Moreover, a great majority of the time unconfirmed BCH transactions are also cleared after a block is processed. The average confirmation time is between 8-18 minutes for BCH transactions, Bitinfocharts explains. 

The average fee for the BCH chain is roughly $0.027 per transaction on December 21 according to Bitinfocharts. The median fee has touched highs between $0.06 and $0.11 per transaction Bitinfocharts aggregated data reveals.

The Verdict

Right now there’s a clear difference between both networks average speed and costs per transaction. Miners have been trying to clear the bitcoin core mempool, but the backlog continues to grow, and there’s hasn’t been any relief in almost three weeks. The bitcoin cash mempool is cleared consistently as mentioned above, and even when transaction congestion adds up a mined BCH block usually clears the entire backlog. For instance four days ago the mining pool Viabtc processed an 8MB block that confirmed every transaction that was unconfirmed in one fell swoop. Surely there are far more transactions taking place on the BTC network, but the BCH transaction rate has been increasing exponentially since it was introduced this past August.

Time and the number of people using each network will continue to reveal data no matter what people’s opinions are, numbers and recorded data don’t lie.

*** Editors Note: This article has been edited as it once said the median transaction was US$0.27 cents, however, it was missing a zero and the actual median transaction fee for 12/21/17 was $0.027 per transaction on the bitcoin cash network.  

What do you think about the current fees and transaction times associated with the Bitcoin core (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) blockchains? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Images via Shutterstock, Pixabay, and Johoe’s mempool statistics.

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