Can Bitcoin Cash Live Up to Its Hype? Real World Stress Test Is Coming

Bitcoin cash (BCH) is being called out, essentially asked if its blockchain and algorithmic infrastructure can hang while bombarded with millions of transactions thrown its way. It’s an effort by enthusiasts to demonstrate BCH resilience in the face of massive adoption and usage, and they’re inviting even haters to participate.

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Bitcoin Cash is Going to Get Pounded with Millions of Transactions

“The Bitcoin Cash Stress Test is a community driven stress test of the Bitcoin Cash network and its services,” reads the aptly named site, BCH Stress Test Day. “We aim to create millions of minimum fee transactions within a 24-hour period. Such volume of minimum fee transactions will prove to merchants and businesses worldwide, and also to ourselves, that the BCH main network is capable of scaling on chain and is capable of handling such volume of transactions today.”

It’s a bold, original way to let go of theory and enter the real, empirical world. Prior to and even after 2017’s most successful fork, creating Bitcoin Cash (BCH), some pretty weighty hitters within the ecosystem openly warned about the consequences of such a move. Instability. Susceptible to attacks. And on the worrying, discouragement went. For the last ten months and change, BCH has defied all critics and soldiered on without so much as a hiccup, proving those who wished to maintain the integrity of Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision were at least onto something.

“The data collected will be of great use to developers and businesses providing services on the BCH network,” enthusiasts claim, “[and] it also gives them a chance to stress test their services. Everyone is welcome to participate in the stress test, with the cost spread across the community. The cost per user is tiny.”

Indeed, notorious haters such as the anonymous handle @bitpico has repeatedly tried something along these lines, although in malicious manner (BCH Stress Test Day has noted the attempts). The handle’s current dustup includes a blurry, scrolling screen and appeals for help. Supposedly this person was a Segwit2x developer, who might’ve worked with the BTC1 team,  and then threatened to continue the initial fork through November of last year, insisting only one miner was needed to be successful. Nothing came of it, however, and that will inevitably be the case this time around. The BCH Stress Testers are inviting such folks to help on the upcoming date as well.

You Can Participate with Very Little Effort

September 1st, 2018, 12:00 UTC, is the testing date for anyone interested. It’s purposefully scheduled prior to the planned BCH November upgrade, and proponents hope to “make this an annual event.” The hope is “to process over 5 million minimum fee transactions within a 24 hour period on the main BCH chain. However, this does not need to be the only aim, as we also want people to stress test apps, wallets and services, so everyone can get useful data they can use to move forward.” The sheer number of transactions processed “will showcase the Bitcoin BCH network capacity today, and will be a positive signal for merchants, businesses and investors, giving them confidence in the Bitcoin BCH network and its ability to scale on-chain,” the testers assure.

Organizers are hoping to attract a great many participants in a number of areas. With the “most optimal way to participate will be to run a script that will flood the network with low fee transactions,” as “the most cost effective method, as funds will be recycled until they are exhausted on fees.”

But that’s not the only way to test the BCH network. “Other methods will be just to make as many transactions as possible on any platform or wallet you choose,” which include spamming all your friends a penny, copy and pasting an entire book onto the chain, maybe even post favorited gangta rap lyrics onto Memo.cash and Blockpress. “You can also just like every comment on Memo.cash with 546 satoshi tip, or make lots of 546 satoshi donations to eatBCH.” Heck, chat up some buddies on the Kepyport app while you’re going about all the above, betting on “Satoshi Dice, Satoshi Bones or any other BCH online games.”

The cost of participation is really up to participants on September 1st. Choosing to run a script might mean “it will only cost 0.01 BCH to create roughly 5,000 transactions before funds are exhausted,” which, at the moment, would be around $8. For those who consider tipping, “it will cost just under $4.20 to send 1000 tips of 546 satoshi’s to people (0.00546 BCH)” on Memo.cash, for example.

Do you think the BCH Stress Test is a good idea? Let us know in the comments. 

Images via the Pixabay.

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