What really is eCash?
For those not familiar of this cryptocurrency, eCash is the new name of Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHA) that was rebranded in July 2021. Bitcoin Cash ABC is a fork from Bitcoin Cash that happened and completed in 2020.
With rebranding, what goes along as a major change is on its denomination. BCHA was converted to eCash with XEC as ticker symbol at a one-to-one million ratio (1:1,000,000) with a maximum supply volume of 21,000,000,000,000.
Since then, it had undergone some improvement. Now, eCash incorporates the “Avalanche” proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus layer, to significantly improve its network overall performance and efficiency. Avalanche consensus protocol facilitate agreement between all of the validators, ensuring that the network has a synchronized view on the data. An essential element for integrity and transparency.
Aside from the inherent properties of XEC as a store of value and a promising medium of exchange, the following are just few of the features of eCash that will make it a formidable virtual money that can possibly face squarely the upcoming challenge of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC):
- Extra-ordinarily fast and secure transactions
- Comparatively low (if not the lowest) transaction fee
- Highly anonymous transactions
Once the upgrade will be fully developed and implemented, the transaction rate is expected to significantly increase from 100 to more than five million transactions per second. With a substantially reduced transaction finality time thereby improving users payment experience.
The following is a full quote from the e.cash/blog discussing basic information regarding the eCash Avalanche development:
“Using a fast consensus protocol to do Pre-Consensus has been a long-standing item on the eCash Roadmap (and previously on the Bitcoin Cash roadmap). This is one of the improvements needed to power eCash to be a competitor and alternative to Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). When the Avalanche whitepaper appeared in 2018, eCash founder Amaury Séchet, and the Bitcoin ABC team, recognized that this new protocol was what they had been searching for, as it fulfilled the needed requirements.
It should be noted that eCash’s Avalanche implementation is completely separate and distinct from the AVAX Avalanche project. They have no connection, other than both using the protocol described in the Avalanche whitepaper. In the case of eCash, Avalanche consensus is used for fast and live consensus needs, such as fast transaction finality. Proof-of-work based Nakamoto consensus is retained where it is superior, providing objective consensus criterion to enable decentralized node bootstrapping.
Adding the Avalanche protocol has been long and technically challenging work. It is an entirely new consensus protocol which had to be implemented from scratch by the Bitcoin ABC team. While there are still many steps remaining to realize the full benefits of the Avalanche protocol, the launch of Post-Consensus on the eCash mainnet is a significant achievement, and a solid foundation for further enhancements to build upon.”
Since eCash is using Avalanche protocol the question arise, – Is eCash using the AVAX blockchain? The answer is – “No, eCash is its own blockchain. eCash’s Avalanche Consensus code is being built completely independently by the Bitcoin ABC team. This is important as it puts eCash in a technology leadership role, rather than having to rely on the innovation of others.”
Considering the huge 21 trillion maximum supply of eCash, another question usually comes to mind, will some XEC be burned to decrease supply in the future. They have this answer in the website’s FAQ – “No. We think XEC is valuable, and therefore we will not burn any.”
As of this writing, eCash is number 61 in the coinmarketcap.com ranking based on its market capitalization of $867,012,950 and with its present price at $0.00004534.
Being among the top 100 cryptocurrency is already a good showing for this rebranded virtual asset. If eCash will go as far as what it aims to achieve, to be a global digital money in the future, everything still remains to be seen.
Please do take note that the above information is not an investment recommendation. Readers are advised to do further research and due diligence study to be able to make sound investment decision.
More information on eCash is available in these sites:
