What is eCash (XEC)?
A fast, low-fee cryptocurrency descended from the Bitcoin family — with a redenomination, a new consensus layer, and a scaling-first roadmap.
In one paragraph
eCash (XEC) is a peer-to-peer electronic cash network that forked from Bitcoin Cash in November 2021. It uses Avalanche pre-consensus on top of Nakamoto-style proof-of-work to achieve sub-second transaction finality, and it redenominated the unit so balances feel less awkward (1 BCH ≈ 1,000,000 XEC).
Ticker, supply, units
The ticker is XEC. The maximum supply is twenty-one trillion (21,000,000,000,000) XEC — the same total cap as Bitcoin, expressed in the smaller unit. There are no decimal sub-units beyond 1 XEC.
Why it exists
The eCash branch prioritizes scaling and consensus innovation: large blocks, Avalanche-based finality, and protocol changes that the BCH branch chose not to adopt. Whether that's a feature or a fragmentation is a matter of opinion — what's not in dispute is that XEC is now its own chain with its own software ecosystem, including Electrum ABC.
What is XEC?+
XEC is the ticker symbol for eCash. One XEC equals 0.000001 of the original Bitcoin Cash unit — the redenomination happened at the 2021 fork to put values in a more familiar range.
How many XEC will there ever be?+
The maximum supply is 21,000,000,000,000 XEC (twenty-one trillion). This is the same total cap as Bitcoin, simply expressed in the smaller unit.
How is XEC different from BCH?+
XEC is the eCash branch of the Bitcoin Cash family; BCH is the other branch. They split in November 2021 over governance and roadmap differences. XEC pursues Avalanche-based consensus and aggressive scaling; BCH continues without those changes.
Is eCash a fork of Bitcoin Cash?+
Yes. eCash forked from Bitcoin Cash at block 661,648 in November 2021. Holders of BCH at that block received an equivalent amount of XEC on the eCash chain.