Bitcoin Cash Rivalry Heats Up in Tokenization Race
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Bitcoin Cash isn’t normally thought of as a token platform, but a recent development might bring new tokenized assets to the fourth-most valuable blockchain. CoinGeek has announced the winners of its tokenization contest, potentially raising new possibilities for BCH-based ICOs, stablecoins, collectibles and games.
The five-million-sterling prize, paid in Bitcoin Cash, will go to “Team Tokenized,” a multinational team of developers from Australia and Singapore.
“It is now possible for anyone in the world to create and operate their own smart contract on the BCH blockchain network using customizable terms and conditions,” CoinGeek said in the press release. “The Tokenized protocol means many assets can be tokenized on BCH,” including financial assets (like security tokens), tickets, and loyalty schemes.
The prize is the culmination of a months-long effort to add functionality to the Bitcoin fork. Because Bitcoin Cash has larger blocks than the original chain, developers have sought ways to use the extra space for applications that were not practical on the old chain. Several BCH operations have been re-activated for a more robust smart contract language, allowing new dApps like messenger services or even decentralized storage.
“Our Tokenized system has been designed to harness the full properties of BCH’s native technology for smart contracts and tokens,” said James Belding, who authored the Tokenized protocol. “I believe it is only a matter of time before nearly every asset is tokenized on the BCH network, and we have created our Tokenized solution to support the global scale and diversity of tokens that can done on BCH.”
BCH Fork Widens
But this isn’t the first tokenization solution for Bitcoin Cash, and the competition highlights the growing rift in the BCH community. Crypto Briefing has already reported on Wormhole, a tokenization protocol similar to Bitcoin (BTC)’s Omni layer.
CoinGeek did not directly mention the other protocol, but an indirect remark in the announcement appeared to dismiss the Wormhole solution:
The Tokenized system proves in several ways that the original “Satoshi Vision” of Bitcoin (BCH) works. It uses technical features already existing within the BCH protocol; i.e it does not require any new OP_codes or other protocol changes. It is an on-chain solution and does not create a separate token layer. Equally, ‘Tokenized’ does not require ‘burning’ BCH coins to create tokens which simply disturbs the Bitcoin system. [i.e., unlike Wormhole]
This crack appears to be part of the growing fracture in the Bitcoin Cash community. Most BCH developers and miners support the roadmap developed by Bitcoin ABC, with a focus on developing the soundness and cash-like functionality of the Bitcoin Cash chain.
However, a smaller faction—represented by Craig Wright’s nChain and Calvin Ayre’s CoinGeek— have proposed an alternative client, modestly named “Satoshi’s Vision,” with four new op_codes and a cavernous 128 MB block size. The schism is expected to result in a contentious hard fork later this month.
If you missed the boat on tokenizing BCH, it’s not too late to win some of Calvin Ayre’s money. CoinGeek will keep the contest open, with a second-place prize of a million pounds for other tokenization solutions.
The author has investments in Bitcoin Cash.
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