Last year’s Bitcoin Cash hardfork has come with multiple negative consequences. Firstly, the BCH blockchain was split into two, leading to the birth of Bitcoin Cash SV and Bitcoin Cash ABC.
The BCH community was split into two after the announcement of a proposed upgrade, which resulted in the so-called Bitcoin Cash Hash Wars where organizations supporting Bitcoin Cash ABC and Bitcoin Cash SV were competing with each other to secure the most hash power to their networks.
According to a BitMex study, the Hash Wars had a total cost of over $14 million.
Now it seems like it is taking its toll on Bitcoin Cash developers who are having a hard time raising the funds they need for the ongoing development of the cryptocurrency’s network, leaked screenshots of messages in a Telegram group show.
“Well if something is[n’t] done, Bitcoin-ABC will shut down and BCH will cease to exist,” Bitcoin Cash and Openbazaar developer Chris Pacia said.
While Bitcoin Cash developers need funds to work on the project, they seek to acquire them in a decentralized way.
End of the road for BCH development.
Even Roger has tapped out. pic.twitter.com/ewH1QR9JiO— Skylark_BitCoin 🐉 (@skylark_bitcoin) June 16, 2019
“TLDR: Amaury complained about structured funding and no one knows how to solve the problem that doesn’t involve centralization of power or requires trust,” a user stated, referring to Bitcoin ABC developer Amaury Sechet.
Users in the Telegram group had controversial opinions on Sechet’s way to raise funds.
“I don’t see why donations from large entities can’t work, for instance, the Bitcoin.com initiative we have seen recently to raise funds,” a user wrote.
“Nobody is donating. That’s why,” Openbazaar developer Chris Pacia replied. “That fundraiser probably won’t hit the goal and the goal is an order of magnitude less than what is needed,” he added.
According to Pacia, “multi-coin” companies are the reason why Bitcoin Cash devs are underfunded.
“The main problem as I see it is all the large companies that profit from BCH are multi-coin companies. If BCH goes under, they shrug their shoulders and life goes on for them. They have virtually no incentive to fund BCH,” he said.
Bitcoin.com, in collaboration with other projects and organizations such as Electron Cash and the FVNI Development Society, has launched fundraiser on May 30 to support the Bitcoin Cash development team.
The fundraiser has a phase one goal of acquiring 800 BCH (about $348,000) by August 1. Until now, contributors have already donated 348 BCH, reaching 43% of the goal.
If Pacia is right and the money acquired from the fundraiser is much less than they need, then it seems like that Bitcoin Cash developers are in a really bad financial situation.
However, if the fundraiser reaches its goal, the money should be enough for the devs to cool down and continue working on the project until they manage to find a viable long-term solution for their financials.