Bitcoin Cash Difficulty Volatile Ahead of Nov. 15 Hard Fork

Disloyalty and perhaps manipulation among miners, or just the possibility of such, has refocused the conversation ahead of the Nov. 15 fork.

The minor upgrades are compatible with all miners and should enhance basic functionality for users across the chain - something that's hard to disagree with.

This issue is still present even as BCH itself is set for a new iteration termed Bitcoin ABC. The community is still arguably neglecting a potentially flawed Difficulty Adjustment Algorithm, updated in a widely-criticized proposal made by BCH influencers two years ago, which may be signaling to miners that the control they've enjoyed so far isn't soon to be reined in.

On Aug. 1, 2017, it split from BTC via a hard fork, with one of the main reasons being a disagreement over how to adjust mining difficulty, how to best scale, and other fundamental ideas.

Bitcoin Cash's algorithm may have been idealist in the way it assumed an equitable and fully decentralized ecosystem in 2017, supported by individual users rather than the large mining groups and ASIC miners of today.

Hashrate issuesSome curious trends in the BCH hashrate and long gaps between blocks appear to illustrate that large miners have smelled blood in the water and may now be gaming the algorithm's flawed method for periodically adjusting its difficulty.

One explanation is that large, unknown mining pools that have concentrated hashing power can supposedly engage the network in measured intervals to keep the BCH difficulty relatively static while also tossing their weight around elsewhere.

The strategy entails a speedy production of 144 blocks, followed by a quick removal of their collective capacity to mine BTC before the algorithm reacts and increases difficulty.

Any miner who employs a blockchain-switching algorithm that's more sophisticated than the algorithm used to adjust the difficulty of a major blockchain should be commended, some say.

If the identity of the miner is truly unknown, then it will no longer be possible to change the rules that regulate mining difficulty or block appearance time, since it would be difficult to start a conversation or reach a consensus.