The Original Bitcoin Protocol: What is It and Why Does It Matter?

So, what if BSV is essentially the original Bitcoin? Is it not merely a title that would be difficult for people to believe in?

15:06 06 October 2021

MNP, the top five accounting, tax and business consulting company in Canada, has released on August 25, 2021 an extensive independent report entitled “The Original Bitcoin Protocol: What is It and Why Does It Matter?” 

 

The MNP report provides an in-depth comparison of the relevant Bitcoin implementations BTC and BSV against the writings of Bitcoin white paper author Satoshi Nakamoto, gleaning the original intention of the Bitcoin creator. The unequivocal findings state that BSV is the closest to the original Bitcoin.

 

“After examining BTC and BSV compared to the original vision set forth in the whitepaper, forum posts, emails, and other writings by Satoshi, it is our opinion BSV is the implementation that currently best represents what Satoshi originally intended,” the MNP report concluded.

 

So, what if BSV is essentially the original Bitcoin? Is it not merely a title that would be difficult for people to believe in? Why does it really matter?

 

These questions are all valid, and also questions that can also easily be answered. First off, for many, being the original is used as a title to better market products and services. The same is true for BTC. Being hailed as the original Bitcoin makes it a premium digital currency; in fact, the pioneer of all digital currencies, the one that started it all.

 

It is one of the main reasons why BTC is the highest priced digital currency—it is a coveted item, much like an authentic artwork by a famous artist, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt and Jackson Pollock.

 

However, what BTC retained is actually just the original ticker symbol for Bitcoin. The first hard fork is the result of scaling battles and protocol changes. While Satoshi envisioned Bitcoin to be a scalable blockchain in order to become more than just a payment system and transition to technological plumbing that would enable global businesses to improve their systems and streamline daily processes, BTC has continuously refused to scale. 

 

Instead, it chose to alter the original Bitcoin protocol to be able to record transactions off-chain and rely on second-tier solutions that would compensate for the base layer, which is the blockchain, not having the ability to scale. In stark contrast to BTC, BSV has fully committed all its resources to realizing Satoshi’s original vision.

 

“BTC is considered the original chain that was worked on by Satoshi until development was taken over by the community. BSV was established with the clear intent to implement Bitcoin according to Satoshi’s vision by restoring the original code and adhering to the design principles expressed in the whitepaper, forum posts, and emails,” the MNP report stated.

 

And BSV’s commitment to Satoshi’s vision has come to fruition. It has restored the original Bitcoin protocol, unlocked unbounded scaling and continuously increased its throughput, at the same time lowering its transaction fees.

 

 

BTC stagnated using the initial block size cap set by Satoshi at 1MB and a maximum throughput of only seven transactions per second (tps) at high transaction fees that peaked at over $50. On the other hand, a record-breaking 2GB block has recently been mined on the BSV blockchain; the throughput is set to be increased this year to over 50,000 tps, matching the capacity of the VISA network; and transaction fees are at an all-time low, averaging $0.0038 per transaction. 

 

And this is just the beginning. As the BSV blockchain continues to scale, terabyte-size blocks and millions of tps are possible not too far into the future, allowing for Satoshi’s vision to be realized through mass adoption of Bitcoin. 

 

This is also where BSV’s energy efficiency and sustainability lie. While BTC miners rely solely on the fixed subsidy of 6.25 coins awarded for every block added to the blockchain, BSV miners can bank on earning more in transaction fees and treating the fixed subsidy as what it was meant to be—block rewards. 

 

In fact, the 2GB mined recently has earned the miner 10.01 in BSV coins—almost double that of the 6.25 coins. The fixed subsidy is halved every four years, with the next one happening in 2024, effectively reducing rewards to just 3.125 coins. With this, it would not be sustainable for miners to continue mining BTC. 

 

And because BTC has no real utility and only benefits the select few who can afford to transact with and buy BTC, which is currently priced at $42,423.20 and has reached an all-time high of over $63,000 this year, its high energy consumption through the use of Proof of Work is proven to be a waste. 

 

“And that’s where BTC falls down because no one actually sees any utility there. They just see a ton of money being thrown around for no comprehensible reason. But the connection between that utility and Proof of Work is a challenge I think for us in explaining why BSV can actually provide huge benefits to society at large at a cost that is justifiable,” nChain CTO and BSV Infrastructure Team Technical Director Steve Shadders explained in the most recent CoinGeek Conference.

 

 

With already hundreds of firms from all over the world building applications and platforms on the BSV blockchain that includes a global healthcare database, a national digital ledger for a small country, supply chain management solutions and a national voting platform, it is clear that BSV can benefit the global population. 

 

The numbers outlined above show the big difference between what the original Bitcoin as envisioned by Satoshi truly is and what people believe as the original Bitcoin. The original Bitcoin is not meant to become a pseudo digital gold that acts as a speculative investment at best. It is meant to provide utility across many different industries. With 1MB blocks, seven tps, expensive transaction fees, a highly volatile price and massive energy wastage, it would not be practical for businesses to use BTC as a payment system—what more as a distributed ledger that can be used as a global database. And this is why BSV being the original Bitcoin matters.