What is Bitcoin SV, and why was it created?

Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, and it was launched in 2009. It was developed by a person (or a group of people) under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto with the idea of decentralising and digitising currency.

One challenge with Bitcoin is the computing power needed to validate transactions and commit them to the blockchain (and mine new Bitcoins in the process). Bitcoin uses a mechanism called Proof of Work for mining, which utilises huge amounts of computational resources. Mining Bitcoin, therefore, consumes a large amount of electricity, and this is proving to be detrimental to the environment.

The fact that Bitcoin's block size is just 1MB exacerbates this issue. The 'block size' defines how much transaction data can be stored in one block before it is created and permanently added to the blockchain. Bitcoin's block size is 1MB, and it takes about 10 minutes for a Bitcoin block to be created. As a result, adding large volumes of transaction data to the Bitcoin blockchain requires the creation of many blocks, consuming a lot of time and energy. The inability to process high transaction volumes fast enough and high transaction costs also hinder Bitcoin's ability to scale.

Bitcoin Cash was created to address these issues by increasing the network's block size from 1MB to 8MB and eventually 32MB. While this increased the transaction speed on the network, the crypto community believed it could (and needed to) be further improved.

In 2018, Bitcoin Cash experienced a hard fork and a new cryptocurrency called Bitcoin SV was created with a block size of 128MB, which today is extended to 4GB. The larger block size results in faster transactions and lower energy consumption as compared to both Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. In fact, Bitcoin SV claims to process over 50,000 transactions per second, while Bitcoin can only complete about seven transactions per second (as of early 2022).

The larger block size also solves the scalability issue that Bitcoin faces. The network can facilitate more transactions that are completed faster, and all of this is achieved while keeping the energy consumption in check. This allows Bitcoin SV to expand and facilitate more users and blockchain products while maintaining performance and sustainability.

The reason this hard fork was named Satoshi's Vision is because it aims to fulfil the pseudonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto's vision of making Bitcoin a universal monetary system. The ability to scale at mass allows Bitcoin SV to stay true to the founder's idea for Bitcoin to be a universal currency.

The block size is the most notable difference between Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Bitcoin SV. Bitcoin has a block size of 1MB, Bitcoin Cash has a block size of 32MB, and Bitcoin SV has a block size of 4GB.

The considerably larger block size facilitates faster transactions, and the Transaction Per Second (TPS) value is much higher on the Bitcoin SV network. Bitcoin has a TPS of around seven, Bitcoin Cash has a TPS of about 300, and Bitcoin SV has a TPS of approximately 50,000. A higher TPS means the Bitcoin SV network can take on more transactions and complete them faster, and consequently, the transaction fees levied on users are much lower when compared to Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin.

You can buy Bitcoin SV using fiat currency or another crypto via an exchange that lists it. All you need to do is sign up on a cryptocurrency exchange of your choice and then invest the money you are comfortable with into Bitcoin SV (or any other cryptocurrency you want).

Make sure to compare cryptocurrency exchanges before signing up by analysing their fees, features and benefits. You should also consider checking if an exchange is registered with the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) to ensure it complies with local laws and regulations.