Bitcoin SV (“Satoshi Vision”) is a Bitcoin Cash fork created on November 15, 2018, following the contentious “hash war” between Craig Wright (BSV camp) and Roger Ver/Jihan Wu (BCH camp) — competing to claim the “true Bitcoin” mantle via dominant hashrate. BSV dramatically increased block sizes (from Bitcoin Cash’s 32MB to unlimited, practically 4GB+) claiming this was closer to Satoshi Nakamoto’s original vision for on-chain scaling. BSV is primarily associated with Craig Wright, an Australian entrepreneur who has claimed (unproven, widely disputed) to be Satoshi Nakamoto and has pursued aggressive litigation against prominent crypto figures. BSV was delisted from major exchanges including Binance, Kraken, and Shapeshift in 2019 amid the Satoshi identity controversy. A UK court ruled in January 2024 that Craig Wright is NOT Satoshi Nakamoto.
How It Works
BSV shares Bitcoin’s SHA-256 proof-of-work mining algorithm but with dramatically larger blocks:
Block size progression:
- Bitcoin: 1MB
- Bitcoin Cash: 8MB (launch), 32MB (later)
- Bitcoin SV: 128MB (launch), 2GB (2020), unlimited (2021)
Teranode:
BSV’s proposed scaling solution for processing millions of transactions per second through massively parallelized validation nodes.
Script restoration:
BSV claims to have restored Bitcoin’s original OP_CODES (disabled in early Bitcoin) for more complex scripting capabilities — though critics argue Satoshi’s original design doesn’t match BSV’s claims.
Transaction ordering:
BSV enforces topological transaction ordering (parents before children in the same block), unlike Bitcoin’s canonical order, for claimed engineering benefits.
Tokenomics
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Max Supply | 21,000,000 BSV |
| Block Reward | Same halvings as Bitcoin (synced) |
| Block Size | Unlimited (4GB+ blocks achieved) |
| Mining Algorithm | SHA-256 (same as Bitcoin, BCH) |
Use Cases
- Large data storage — BSV proponents use it for on-chain data storage applications
- Micropayments — Low fee transactions for machine-to-machine payments
- Speculation — Trading on exchange prices
History
- Aug 2017 — Bitcoin Cash forks from Bitcoin over block size debate
- Nov 15, 2018 — BSV forks from Bitcoin Cash during “hash war”; Craig Wright vs. Roger Ver
- 2019 — Binance, Kraken, ShapeShift delist BSV after Craig Wright threatens legal action against Hodlonaut Twitter user; BSV community responds with “#WeAreAllHodlonaut” movement
- 2020 — BSV achieves world’s largest blockchain (more data stored on-chain than all other blockchains)
- 2021 — Craig Wright files multiple lawsuits across jurisdictions claiming copyright on Bitcoin whitepaper and codebase
- Jan 2024 — UK High Court rules Craig Wright is NOT Satoshi Nakamoto; BSV price drops substantially
- 2024 — COPA (Crypto Open Patent Alliance) wins legal battle; Craig Wright found to have forged documents
Common Misconceptions
“BSV is Bitcoin’s true successor.” There is no “true Bitcoin” — the original Bitcoin community chose SegWit and the Lightning Network for scaling. BSV represents one faction’s view, rejected by the vast majority of developers and users.
“Large blocks prove BSV follows Satoshi’s vision.” Craig Wright’s claims about Satoshi’s intent are disputed. Satoshi’s original whitepaper doesn’t specify the block size needed for the system’s vision; early Bitcoin codebase had a 1MB limit.