Last Updated on August 28, 2025
Bitcoin SV emerged from one of the most contentious disputes in Bitcoin’s history. Bitcoin Cash hard forked from Bitcoin, with Bitcoin SV then hard forking from Bitcoin Cash.
This was the era of the block size wars, an intense debate about scaling, protocol governance and the identity and future of Bitcoin itself.
If you want to fully understand Bitcoin, then it is worth trying to understand the complex saga that is the history of Bitcoin SV. This guide will take you through every milestone, controversy and development.
What is Bitcoin SV? Understanding the Basics
Bitcoin SV stands for Bitcoin Satoshi Vision. The project claims that Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash abandoned Satoshi’s original vision and that Bitcoin SV is the true Bitcoin.
The key thing that differentiates Bitcoin SV is block size. Bitcoin has a block size of 1MB, Bitcoin Cash has a block size of 32MB and Bitcoin SV has an adjustable block size. Bitcoin SV claims that big blocks are the only solution that Satoshi considered to resolve the issue of scaling to accommodate more and more transactions.
Their argument is that Bitcoin was designed to be a peer-to-peer electronic cash system capable of scaling on chain, without second layer solutions.
Without the ability to scale, a blockchain becomes expensive due to limited transactions and cannot function effectively for transactions. This is the essence of the Bitcoin SV criticism of Bitcoin – it is being used as a store of value but it is not being used as cash.
Unfortunately, Bitcoin SV has not won the battle for hearts and minds, with a falling market cap, limited exchange listings and huge amounts of controversy.
In theory, there could be some merit to its technical argument, depending on where you sit in the big block vs small block debate, but the market so far has firmly rejected Bitcoin SV.
The Road to Bitcoin SV: Bitcoin Cash Wars of 2018
To fully understand the history and emergence of Bitcoin SV, you need to understand the broader scaling debate that has existed since Bitcoin was first created.
This is the small blocker vs big blocker debate.
Shortly after Bitcoin was created Satoshi implemented a 1mb block size to prevent spam attacks.
This was fine initially, while the Bitcoin network was small. But once it grew in popularity there were concerns that the 1mb limit would be too restrictive and the network would not be able to process a large number of transactions quickly. In other words it wouldn’t be able to scale.
Two camps emerged:
- Small blockers who argued that large blocks would centralise mining since fewer people would be able to run nodes. They wanted to preserve the 1mb block size to ensure Bitcoin stayed decentralised.
- Big blockers who argued that the block size should be increased, so that Bitcoin could scale on chain.
In August 2017 the big blockers hard forked from Bitcoin, created Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) initially had an 8MB block size.
However the debate did not stop there. Within the Bitcoin Cash community disputes continued to rage about block size and the future direction of the protocol.
Again, this time within Bitcoin Cash, two camps emerged:
- Bitcoin ABC (adjustable block size cap) who argued that BCH should continue to make improvements, including an increase to a block size of 32MB.
- Bitcoin SV (Satoshi Vision) who argued for removing a block size limit altogether and restoring the protocol to the Bitcoin 0.1 specification.
The two camps could not reconcile and a hard fork of Bitcoin Cash occurred on 15th November 2018.
A subsequent battle then ensued called the “hash war” where both chains competed for mining support to defend their chain.
Most major exchanges initially listed both blockchains as BCHABC and BCHSV respectively.
Eventually BCHABC emerged from the hash war as the dominant chain and retained the ticker BCH. Bitcoin Satoshi Vision became BSV, battered and bruised but not defeated.
Following the hash war BSV’s developers began to implement their vision, launching the Genesis upgrade in February 2020 which removed the block size limit, allowing miners to set their own limits.
This solved the scaling problem and allowed BSV to scale on chain but came at the expense of decentralisation as big blocks are more expensive to process, excluding small miners from participation.
Craig Wright and the Satoshi Nakamoto Claims
No discussion of Bitcoin SV’s history is complete without examining Craig Wright.
Craig Wright is an Australian computer scientist who is a key figure in the emergence and development of BSV.
He also claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto.
This is highly disputed.
f he was Satoshi then his claims to be restoring the original vision would have merit.
If he isn’t Satoshi, which is the general consensus, then his claim to be restoring Satoshi’s original vision lack credibility. His participation and leadership within the BSV community has tarnished its reputation and arguably impacted its lack of adoption.
Nevertheless BSV retains a lot of support from those big blockers who believe it best reflections Satoshi’s original design.
Market Performance of BSV
After the fork BSV in 2018 briefly wicked up to trade at just above $240.
It then bottomed in April 2019 at just over $50.
BSV participated in the late 2020 and early 2021 bull run, reaching a top of $480 in April, the same month that Bitcoin hit the first of that year’s double top.
However BSV the entered a decline it has never recovered from, collapsing in both USD terms and in BTC terms.
Major exchanges no longer list the coin, which certainly hasn’t helped price action and there is no institutional interest.
BTC has certainly won the battle as digital gold, the new sound money of the 21s century.
Conclusion
The history of Bitcoin SV is a fascinating one. I’m not technically aware enough to really take a position in the big block vs small block debate and I can see merit on both sides. But I follow price, as most do, and from that alone it seems clearly resolved that both BCH and BSV have failed.
But I don’t think you can ever count on that for sure. The cryptocurrency ecosystem is a strange place.
I for one have always followed the advice that however much BTC you own, you should own an equal amount of BCH and BSV. It’s a small price to pay for insurance, just in case there was some major change of sentiment.
BSV has weathered some serious storms and those who do believe in it are true believers. Perhaps there is more to this story that will unfold in the future.
I will be watching with curiosity.
