Paul Sztorc's long-awaited Bitcoin hard fork, known as the eCash network, went live on Oct. 29, according to Cointelegraph. The fork gives eligible Bitcoin holders an equivalent balance in the new chain's native token, ECX.
Sztorc, founder of LayerTwo Labs and a longtime advocate of the Bitcoin Drivechain proposals BIP300 and BIP301, launched the separate network to bring payments, privacy and other applications to a chain built from Bitcoin's code.
What is eCash?
Developed by LayerTwo Labs, eCash is a separate hard fork of Bitcoin. Its main innovation is Drivechains, a system that lets developers build independent sidechains with different features without changing the base-layer protocol.
Developers can experiment with applications for payments, privacy, digital assets and prediction markets, while miners can earn additional transaction fees. Five sidechains launched alongside eCash's mainnet: BitNames, BitAssets, Thunder, Truthcoin and zSide. Two more, the quantum-resistant Photon and decentralized exchange CoinShift, are still to come.
Sztorc has spent over a decade advocating for Drivechains and argues that Bitcoin's conservative development approach has held back its potential. "Anything that isn't maximizing network usage is simply a distraction," he told Cointelegraph. "Users, the ones who actually pay transaction fees to miners, will win in the long run."
How Bitcoin holders can access ECX
The eCash fork took place at Bitcoin block 973,728. Anyone who controlled their private keys at that snapshot received an equivalent ECX balance, LayerTwo Labs said.
Self-custodying Bitcoiners need a wallet that supports eCash and must carefully follow its process to separate ECX from their BTC. Because the two networks share transaction history, an unprotected transaction on one chain could be replayed on the other.
"Never move your BTC first, as an ordinary, unprotected BTC spend can easily be replayed on the ECX network," LayerTwo Labs warned. Replay controls are built into the protocol, but the company advises holders to move ECX first, before spending BTC.
Those keeping BTC on a centralized exchange are "at their mercy regarding distribution" and should check whether their exchange supports the fork or has announced an ECX distribution.
Where ECX can be traded
Accessing ECX is not the same as being able to sell it, and the token is not yet widely available on larger crypto exchanges. Depending on the jurisdiction, Bitcoin forks can have tax implications worth checking before filing a tax return.
NeoxEX said it opened native ECX deposits, withdrawals and trading on Oct. 29, with ECX/USDT, ECX/USDC and ECX/BTC pairs. CoinW announced plans to distribute ECX to eligible Bitcoin holders, with deposits, withdrawals and trading to be announced later.
Orca, a decentralized exchange on Solana, lets users swap USDC for wrapped ECX (wECX) through a liquidity pool. That provides another way to trade exposure to ECX, but it involves a wrapped token on a different blockchain rather than native ECX trading on the eCash network.
CoinMarketCap placed ECX at $32.63 with around $355,000 in 24-hour trading volume as of Nov. 5, while CoinGecko showed the token as a preview listing with no price yet available and no tracked exchange markets. Crypto market data provider Kaiko said it does not track ECX, limiting independent market data.
LayerTwo Labs said early trading saw ECX fluctuate between $40 and $50, but it did not provide supporting order book depth or trading volume figures, pointing instead to the Orca pool's total value locked as a way for users to assess available liquidity.
"If our fork replicates even a fraction of [Bitcoin Cash] BCH's initial performance," Sztorc said, "the liquidity will be staggering." He added that anyone concerned about low liquidity can hold their coins and decide later. "We are actively adding new exchanges and trading pairs, so the user experience will only improve," he said. "Otherwise, you're welcome to take your free money and leave."
A different vision for Bitcoin
Sztorc says the value of eCash will ultimately depend on whether developers build useful applications and users are willing to pay for them. Paying customers and transaction fee revenue are the project's main measures of success during its first year, he said.
He is not concerned about criticism of Drivechains' security model, especially the claim that miners could coordinate to steal funds held on sidechains. "If you genuinely believe miners will torch their own billion-dollar operations for a short-term theft on an L2, then you shouldn't trust Bitcoin's L1 either," he said.
For now, eCash gives Bitcoiners a new asset and developers a new playground, but whether ECX becomes much more than that will depend on whether anyone actually wants to use it.
