Layer 1 blockchain
BSV Blockchain ticker BSV
Summary
Miners hash block headers with double SHA-256 until the result falls below a target. Blocks target ten-minute spacing, and since November 2017 difficulty retargets every block from a 144-block window. Value sits in unspent outputs locked by Script. Genesis (block 620,538, February 2020) turned most fixed limits, including block size, into values each node operator sets; Chronicle (SV Node 1.2, scheduled for block 943,816 in April 2026) restored eight opcodes, introduced two new ones and added an optional original signature digest. BSV has followed its own chain since 15 November 2018, when at height 556,767 SV Node rejected blocks built under that day's Bitcoin Cash upgrade rules. The BSV Association maintains SV Node, the reference client, and Teranode, a horizontally scaled node released in October 2025, then running beside it at a handful of transaction processors. 1561012131623
Design
- System
- Layer 1 blockchainPermissionless proof-of-work base chain with its own miners and consensus rules; it does not settle to another chain. It split from Bitcoin Cash on 15 November 2018, and its steward, the BSV Association, now names the network BSV Blockchain while the reference node software keeps the name Bitcoin SV (SV Node).
- Settlement family
- Bitcoin family
- Scarce resource
- Work (proof of work)
- State model
- UTXO
- Finality
- Probabilistic
- Who makes blocks
- Miners, mostly through pools, propose blocks by doing SHA-256 proof of work, and full nodes validate them. The BSV Association's Genesis settings page names TAAL, QDLNK and GorillaPool among miners that published their block size settings. Under the Network Access Rules, anyone who mines, validates or broadcasts blocks agrees to be bound by those Rules, and a node using the SV Node software under its licence has also agreed to them. Pool concentration was not measured.
- Fork choice
- Nodes follow the valid chain with the most accumulated work. SV Node enters a safe mode, disabling wallet functions, when it sees a competing fork of at least six blocks (default) and leaves it once the main branch leads by 72 blocks; operators can then reject an attacking chain by hand with invalidateblock. The BSV Association's Alert System can also send messages signed by three of five key holders that tell nodes to invalidate a block, so in practice fork choice also depends on nodes following those alerts.
Qualifications
- Alert system · Applies. Since SV Node 1.1 the BSV Association can broadcast alert messages that are valid when signed by three of five alert key holders. Message types include freezing and unfreezing a specified output, reassigning a frozen output to a new locking script, invalidating a block and banning a peer. The Association says it uses these to give effect to court orders and the Network Access Rules, and it asks businesses that run SV Node without mining either to connect the Alert System or to set the node to accept reassignment transactions once they are six blocks deep.
- Block size limit · Applies. Since Genesis there is no single protocol-wide block size cap. Each node sets the largest block it accepts (excessiveblocksize, which the docs call a mandatory consensus parameter) and the largest it builds (blockmaxsize). SV Node's compiled default accepts any size and builds up to 128 MB; Teranode's mainnet quickstart builds up to 4 GiB and accepts up to 10 GiB. A node set below what miners produce rejects that block and every block built on it.
- Overlay services · Applies. The BSV Association describes overlay services: application servers that validate submitted transactions with simplified payment verification, track headers and Merkle paths and serve lookups for a topic such as a token protocol. They are application infrastructure outside consensus, recorded here and not as a scaling layer.
- Node software licence · Applies. SV Node and Teranode are published under the Open BSV License, which allows use of the software only on the BSV Blockchains, defined as the chain containing a specified block at height 556,767 and its test networks. The Network Access Rules say that a node using the node software also agrees to be bound by those Rules.
- Throughput · Unknown. Throughput applies, but the only figures found are a test-network result for Teranode and a qualitative statement about SV Node; mainnet load was not measured, so both sit in the classified claims list and are not observed rates.
Tradeoffs
- Emphasizes
- Scalability and Security Contested
- Gives up
- Home-scale validation and a rule set free of trusted key holders. Since Genesis each node operator sets the largest block it will accept; the steward's hardware tiers for a mainnet node start at a 64 GB RAM machine, Teranode's mainnet quickstart asks for 128 to 256 GB, and the BSV Association tells businesses that do not mine to verify payments with simplified payment verification. Alert messages signed by three of five Association key holders can direct nodes to freeze or reassign outputs and to invalidate blocks under the Network Access Rules.The Association describes its protocol as having no block size cap and as secured by proof of work. That security reading is contested: it depends on the SHA-256 hashrate BSV attracts, which was not measured, and on nodes applying alert messages, and in June to August 2021 Bitcoin Association reported repeated block re-organisation attacks attempting double spends and asked honest node operators to mark the attacker's chains invalid. A node whose accepted block size is set below what miners produce stops following the chain until the setting is raised.
- Full node at home
- Demanding 1112142425The BSV Association's SV Node guide sets a production minimum of 8 cores, 64 GB RAM plus 64 GB swap, 100 Mbit up and down and a 500 GB SSD when pruned (16 TB unpruned); its development tier is for test networks only. Teranode's mainnet quickstart asks for at least 128 GB RAM (256 GB recommended), a 2 TB+ SSD and 16+ cores. The rating follows the SV Node production minimum, the lightest published setup for a mainnet full node. The Association advises businesses that do not mine to use simplified payment verification and not to run node software.
- Throughput claims
- Lab benchmark: 1,000,000 tx/s 2627Controlled benchmark; not observed network behavior.Two-week live trial on a globally distributed test network, announced by the BSV Association on 14 October 2025.Measured on a test network running Teranode, not on BSV mainnet. The announcement gives no hardware, cluster size, transaction mix or method. Teranode spreads work across many machines, and its mainnet quickstart alone asks for 128 GB or more of RAM. Teranode was running alongside SV Node at a handful of transaction processors when announced; how much mainnet mining uses it was not verified.
- Unclassified 26Unclassified; do not compare.Several thousand transactions per second, stated without a figure as SV Node's capacity limit.A qualitative statement in Teranode's own documentation, with no method, window or hardware. No observed mainnet rate was measured for this profile.
Scaling layers
No scaling layer recorded in this profile.
Capabilities
| Capability | How it is provided | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Account abstraction | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Atomic swaps | Unknown | Script has hash opcodes, and Genesis changed how nLockTime and nSequence are handled, which its release notes describe as a restoration, while OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY and OP_CHECKSEQUENCEVERIFY were sunset for new outputs. These are building blocks; no hash-time-locked swap tool was shown live on mainnet in reviewed sources. 2 |
| Authenticated data publication | Unknown | Since Genesis, data outputs can carry large payloads in transactions of up to 1 GB, and the BSV Association describes overlay services that validate data transactions and serve lookups. These are building blocks and a design description; no live service showing a recorded commitment, retrieval and a reader's check was reviewed. 222 |
| Light clients | Built into the protocolLimited scope | Protocol, limited: consensus produces the proof-of-work header chain, and the BSV Association's SPV guide has a receiver check a Merkle path from each transaction to a header; its SPV Wallet reference implementation does this with paths the sender supplies. Limits: SPV proves inclusion, not that an output is unspent, which needs a broadcast check; the guide says SPV is for small-value payments, not high-value ones; and SV Node disables bloom filtering by default, so light clients get proofs from the payer or from services. 8181920 |
| Native staking or delegation | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| On-chain governance | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Parallel execution | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Payment or state channels | Unknown | Genesis changed how nLockTime and nSequence are handled, which its release notes describe as a restoration and tie to payment channels, and the Association's smart-contract guide lists payment channels as one contract pattern. No live payment or state channel network anchored to BSV was verified. 221 |
| Programmable spending | Native (protocol or core-team software) Earlier definition | Outputs are locked by Script. Genesis (2020) removed most script limits, restored an earlier OP_RETURN behaviour, allowed big-number arithmetic and sunset pay-to-script-hash for new outputs. Chronicle (SV Node 1.2, 2026) restored OP_VER, OP_VERIF, OP_VERNOTIF, OP_SUBSTR, OP_LEFT, OP_RIGHT, OP_2MUL and OP_2DIV, introduced OP_LSHIFTNUM and OP_RSHIFTNUM, raised the script number limit to 32 MB and added an optional original signature digest; SV Node 1.2.2 then relaxed its standardness checks for such transactions. Contracts are output scripts, not an account VM with shared storage. 2349 |
| Protocol-verified messaging | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Reversible transfers or recovery | Unknown | The nearest feature is the Alert System: messages signed by three of five BSV Association key holders tell nodes to freeze a specified output or reassign a frozen output to a new locking script, which the Association describes as a way to comply with court orders; with its assume-whitelisted setting on, SV Node accepts such a reassignment once it is six blocks deep. The Association runs it under the Network Access Rules; it is not a path an owner sets up in advance, and no sender-cancel window was found. 7141517 |
| Rollups | Unknown | No rollup anchored to BSV was found in reviewed sources. |
| Shielded transfers | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Signed partial offers | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
Reading these values
- How this feature is provided
- Built into the protocol, core-team software or independent software says where a feature lives and who can change it. These are implementation layers, not quality: core-team software is not closer to the protocol than independent software.
- Structured assessment pending
- The shared review has not assessed this feature for any chain yet (Account abstraction, Native staking or delegation, On-chain governance, Parallel execution, Protocol-verified messaging and Shielded transfers). That does not mean it is absent, and a chain’s profile may already describe it.
- Unknown
- The review has not established this for this chain under the current definition; the note beside it says why. Unknown is not absent and not a low score. A feature reads “Not present” only when a source shows it is absent.
- Earlier definition
- Payment or state channels, Programmable spending and Rollups keep the earlier definition until the next fact-check. There, “Native” does not separate the protocol from core-team software, “Ecosystem software” does not say who publishes it, and “Partial” does not say which layer.
- Reading across rows
- The list of capabilities is incomplete. Do not read these rows as a chain leading or lagging overall.
Ecosystem & custody
| Product type | Status | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Automated market makers | Unknown | No automated market maker on BSV was reviewed for this profile. |
| Issuer-native stablecoins | ThinMNEE | MNEE is a dollar-backed stablecoin issued on BSV as a 1Sat Ordinals token since March 2025 and also on Ethereum; its site says it is fully collateralized with monthly third-party reserve attestations. Neither Tether's supported-protocol list nor Circle's USDC list includes BSV. Supply and use were not measured. 30313233 |
| Algorithmic stablecoins | Unknown | No algorithmic stablecoin on BSV was reviewed; absence was not checked. |
| Bridges | Unknown | No bridge or wrapped form of BSV on another chain was reviewed for this profile. Risk: Any wrapped BSV on another chain would depend on its issuer or bridge operators, not on BSV proof of work; none was verified here. |
| Block explorers | Established in the ecosystemWhatsOnChain, Bitails | WhatsOnChain runs a BSV explorer and a documented public REST API; Bitails describes itself as a BSV blockchain explorer. Operators and data methods were not reviewed, and an explorer's view is its own indexer's data, not independent validation. 2829 |
| Hardware wallets | ThinLedger (through Electrum SV) | See the custody section: Ledger documents a path through Electrum SV and its own Bitcoin Cash app while stating that it does not support BSV, and Trezor's Bitcoin SV page says Trezor does not currently support it. 34363739 |
Hardware-wallet custody
| Device maker | Status | What users can and cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Ledger | Through an intermediaryElectrum SV, signing with the Ledger Bitcoin Cash appSame as native: No | Can: Manage BSV from a Ledger device through the Electrum SV wallet using Ledger's Bitcoin Cash app, a path Ledger describes for advanced users Cannot: Manage BSV in Ledger Live, which Ledger says does not natively support it Cannot: Use a dedicated BSV app; Ledger says it does not support BSV because BSV has no replay protection Cannot: Find BSV in Ledger's published currency list (@ledgerhq/cryptoassets 13.56.0)Ledger's article (published 2020, modified February 2022) says BSV is not natively supported in Ledger Live, presents the Electrum SV path for advanced users, and says Ledger does not support that path and users proceed at their own risk, so the path is recorded as not equivalent to native support. electrumsv.io now offers ElectrumSVP, an actively maintained fork of ElectrumSV that names no hardware-wallet support; the last ElectrumSV release it lists is 1.3.16 (May 2023). Whether current Bitcoin Cash app releases still sign BSV transactions was not verified. 343539 |
| Trezor | None foundSame as native: No | Cannot: Manage BSV with a Trezor device: Trezor's Bitcoin SV page says Trezor does not currently support itTrezor's Bitcoin SV page asks people who used the asset with Trezor in the past to contact its support team. Its coin list and its firmware's coin support definitions have no BSV entry. Third-party signing paths for BSV with a Trezor device were not checked. 363738 |
Public data
iKnow Blockchain has no public-data lookups for BSV Blockchain yet. This is a limit of the service, not a statement about the network.
| Lookup | Status | What it covers and its limits |
|---|---|---|
| Address or account | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Tokens and assets | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| NFTs | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Transactions | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
Sourced developments
Developments: Reviewed Sep 29, 2026 Next review due Oct 9, 2026, 12:00 UTC.
Publication date · newest first
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SV Node 1.2.2 relaxed post-Chronicle standardness checks
SV Node 1.2.2, an optional update, relaxed and corrected the node's standard-transaction checks after Chronicle, including the allowed transaction version range and the push-only check on unlocking scripts. It also added a parser that streams large peer-to-peer messages to disk, and it lets operators accept non-standard transactions on mainnet with -acceptnonstdtxn.
- Implementation:shipped in SV Node 1.2.2
- Release:optional upgrade
- Activation:takes effect when each node upgrades; no activation height
Sources: BSV Association (GitHub) — Bitcoin SV Version 1.2.2 release notes (external site) · BSV Association (GitHub) — bitcoin-sv releases (external site)
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BSV Association announced Chronicle's mainnet activation height and expected date
The BSV Association announced that Chronicle, SV Node 1.2, would activate on mainnet at block 943,816, expected on 7 April 2026, and that all node operators and exchanges supporting BSV had to upgrade first or risk falling out of consensus.
- Implementation:shipped in SV Node 1.2.0 and 1.2.1
- Release:upgrade required before activation
- Activation:announced for block 943,816 on 7 April 2026; passed by the chain at review, not separately confirmed
Sources: BSV Association via Cision Newswire — BSV Association Announces Chronicle: A Mandatory Network Upgrade (external site) · BSV Association (GitHub) — Bitcoin SV Version 1.2.2 release notes (external site) · Allnodes (PublicNode), powered by the BSV Association — PublicNode BSV mainnet JSON-RPC (read 2026-09-29) (external site)
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SV Node 1.2.0 released with the Chronicle hard fork
The BSV Association released SV Node 1.2.0, a hard fork called Chronicle. It restores eight opcodes, introduces two more, adds an optional original signature digest selected by a new CHRONICLE flag, raises the script number limit to 32 MB, and drops malleability checks for transactions with a version above 1. Activation was set for testnet block 1,713,168 (target 14 January 2026) and mainnet block 943,816 (target 7 April 2026). Version 1.2.1 followed on 30 March 2026 as a mandatory fix release.
- Implementation:shipped in SV Node 1.2.0; fixes in the mandatory 1.2.1
- Release:mandatory upgrade before the activation height
- Activation:scheduled for mainnet block 943,816; the chain was past that height at review (968,924 on 2026-09-29)
Sources: BSV Association (GitHub) — Bitcoin SV Version 1.2.0 release notes (Chronicle) (external site) · BSV Association (GitHub) — Bitcoin SV Version 1.2.1 release notes (external site) · BSV Skills Center (BSV Association) — Chronicle Release (external site) · BSV Association (GitHub) — SV Node chainparams.cpp (external site) · Allnodes (PublicNode), powered by the BSV Association — PublicNode BSV mainnet JSON-RPC (read 2026-09-29) (external site) · BSV Association (GitHub) — SV Node interpreter.cpp: Chronicle opcode and malleability rules (external site)
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BSV Association released Teranode's source code for public use
The BSV Association announced the first public, source-available release of Teranode, its microservices-based node software. It reported a throughput result from a two-week trial on a globally distributed test network, recorded as a test-network figure in the Compare Profile, and said a handful of transaction processors were already running Teranode alongside SV Node, with wider phasing-in planned. Stable releases have followed, reaching v0.15.9 on 17 September 2026.
- Implementation:source-available code and releases published
- Release:public release announced 14 October 2025; latest stable v0.15.9
- Activation:no consensus change; in October 2025 the Association said a handful of transaction processors ran it alongside SV Node
Sources: BSV Association via PR Newswire — BSV Association (BSVA) announces public release of Teranode software (external site) · BSV Association (GitHub) — teranode releases (external site) · BSV Association (GitHub) — Teranode v0.15.9 release notes (external site) · BSV Association (GitHub) — teranode-quickstart (external site)
Topics your AI can explain
Your AI can explain these topics for BSV Blockchain through the connection, with sources.
Known gaps
What this profile's review did not establish:
- The share of mainnet blocks mined with Teranode, and how many miners still run SV Node, were not verified.
- Mining pool concentration and BSV's share of SHA-256 hashrate, and so the cost of attacking it, were not measured.
- Mainnet activation of Chronicle at block 943,816 was inferred from the chain passing that height (968,924 on 2026-09-29) and from SV Node 1.2.2 notes describing post-Chronicle rules; no Association notice confirming activation was read.
- Which block size limits current miners set was not verified; the Association's Genesis settings page lists older published values.
- Current miner fee rates were not verified; only software defaults were read.
- No observed mainnet transaction rate was measured; the only figures are a test-network result and a qualitative statement.
- How often the Alert System has been used to freeze or reassign outputs or to invalidate blocks was not reviewed.
- No payment or state channel network, rollup, bridge or automated market maker on BSV was found; absence was not exhaustively checked.
- Whether Ledger's Bitcoin Cash app still signs BSV transactions through Electrum SV or its successor ElectrumSVP was not verified.
- MNEE supply on BSV, its reserve attestations and wallet support were not checked beyond the issuer's site.
- Token protocols on BSV (1Sat Ordinals, STAS and others) were not reviewed for how wallets and explorers verify them.
- The depth of the 2021 re-organisation attacks and whether any double spend succeeded were not verified; the cited statement names the attacker's chains by height but gives no outcome.
Sources
Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 29, 2026 Next check due Oct 29, 2026.
- Open BSV License Version 5 (SV Node LICENSE file) (external site)
- Bitcoin SV Version 1.0.0 release notes (Genesis upgrade) (external site)
- Bitcoin SV Version 1.2.0 release notes (Chronicle) (external site)
- Bitcoin SV Version 1.2.2 release notes (external site)
- SV Node chainparams.cpp: Genesis and Chronicle activation heights (external site)
- SV Node pow.cpp: difficulty adjustment (external site)
- SV Node policy.h: default block size and fee settings (external site)
- SV Node net_processing.h: bloom filtering disabled by default (external site)
- Chronicle Release (external site)
- Genesis Settings (external site)
- SV Node System Requirements (external site)
- SV Node FAQ: Blocks (pruning and non-BSV blocks) (external site)
- SV Node FAQ: Safe Mode (external site)
- Alert System (external site)
- Alert Messages (external site)
- Network Access Rules: Background to the Rules (external site)
- Network Access Rules FAQ: Users (external site)
- SPV (Simplified Payment Verification) (external site)
- SPV Wallet (external site)
- SPV Wallet: Key Concepts (external site)
- Smart Contracts (external site)
- Overlay Services (external site)
- Bitcoin Cash November 2018 Upgrade specification (external site)
- teranode-quickstart: Docker setup for mainnet, testnet, teratestnet and regtest (external site)
- teranode-quickstart NETWORKS.md: per-network fee and block size settings (external site)
- Teranode documentation: Introduction (external site)
- BSV Association (BSVA) announces public release of Teranode software (external site)
- WhatsOnChain API documentation (external site)
- Bitails: BSV Blockchain Explorer (external site)
- MNEE stablecoin (external site)
- 1Sat Ordinals: NFTs and tokens on Bitcoin SV (external site)
- Supported protocols (external site)
- USDC contract addresses (external site)
- Ledger and Bitcoin SV support (external site)
- @ledgerhq/cryptoassets 13.56.0 currency list (external site)
- Bitcoin SV support status (external site)
- Supported coins and assets (external site)
- trezor-firmware common/defs/support.json (coin support definitions) (external site)
- ElectrumSVP: Bitcoin SV desktop wallet (external site)
- Statement on August 2021 block re-organisation attack on the Bitcoin SV network (Bitcoin Association and the Bitcoin SV Infrastructure Team, 4 August 2021) (external site)
Report an error
Found something wrong or out of date? Reporting is free, and every chain goes through the same process. Published corrections appear in the public log.
Funding disclosure
Funding disclosures appear here when an upkeep arrangement exists, in the form “Upkeep funded by [name]; verdicts unaffected.” The funder ledger has not been published yet. Neutrality & funding