Bitcoin SV

Bitcoin ABC's UAHF specification set August 1, 2017 activation, required a fork block larger than 1MB and introduced mandatory SIGHASH_FORKID replay protection. That event created the Bitcoin Cash rule branch; it did not create BSV as a direct fork from today's BTC chain.

The BSV protocol index carries those BCH-era specifications forward and marks November 15, 2018 as the split-era upgrade. The Open BSV License then pins its chain definition to block 556767 and to Network Access Rules. Code lineage and a shared pre-split ledger are factual continuity; the label “original Bitcoin” remains the Association's thesis.

At each split, keys controlling eligible pre-fork outputs could authorize corresponding outputs on diverging ledgers once replay and chain rules allowed it. Buying BSV later does not create a claim on BTC or BCH, and the common history does not make the three networks interchangeable.

Genesis activated at height 620538 on February 4, 2020. Its specification separates Bitcoin Rules, consensus rules and standard local policies, removing or relaxing multiple consensus restrictions while leaving relay, mining and evaluation limits configurable. “Unbounded” therefore describes the absence of selected fixed protocol caps, not infinite throughput.

This choice makes operator configuration part of the practical product. A transaction may be consensus-valid yet fail a node's policy, and larger blocks still require bandwidth, storage, validation time and mining demand. Scaling claims have to be read beside the actual settings and the miners willing to accept them.

An ordinary BSV output is a UTXO with a locking script; the corresponding unlocking data normally authorizes the spend. The alert documentation adds a second layer: signed messages can freeze and unfreeze specified UTXOs, add a reassignment transaction to a confiscation whitelist, ban or unban peers, and invalidate a block.

The confiscation specification is unusually explicit. A whitelisted transaction can move frozen inputs without their normal unlocking scripts because script verification is skipped, and the node trusts the service that calls the whitelist RPC. A court-order hash provides an audit pointer, but the node does not itself adjudicate whether the underlying court order is genuine.

This is neither shareholder governance nor automatic control over every independent computer. It is a published coordination system that participating nodes can run under Network Access Rules. For a holder, private-key control remains necessary in ordinary use but is not an absolute promise that all conforming BSV nodes will accept every signed spend.

Chronicle shows why a restoration claim still needs an implementation record. Its specification offers an optional original signing digest and a 32MB script-number limit while keeping the previous digest as the default. Yet its planned mainnet height is 943835, whereas the official Skills Center release page gives 943816 with an April 7, 2026 target. Those conflicting plans do not establish where or when execution completed.

The upgrade illustrates the gap between branding and change management. BSV describes these moves as restoration, yet nodes still need a coordinated release and activation height to alter the rules. Stability is a governance objective enforced through deployment, not an absence of later hard forks.

Craig Wright was prominent in BSV's origin story, but the High Court's May 2024 civil judgment declared that he was not Satoshi Nakamoto, did not author the white paper, and did not create Bitcoin or its initial software. The finding rejects an identity claim; it does not erase BSV blocks or decide each coin's ownership.

A December 2024 judgment separately found Wright liable for contempt for breaching the July order. Keeping the rulings distinct matters: the first resolved identity after a civil trial, while the later proceeding enforced the court's restrictions. BSV must therefore be assessed by its code, operators and institutions without treating Wright's claimed authorship as a credential.