What is eCash (XEC)?

Deep Dive

1. Purpose & Value Proposition

eCash rebranded from Bitcoin Cash ABC in 2021 to prioritize becoming “digital cash” for everyday transactions. Its roadmap targets three core upgrades: scaling throughput beyond 5 million transactions/second (vs Bitcoin’s ~7), achieving near-instant transaction finality, and enabling fork-free protocol upgrades. This positions XEC as a payment-focused alternative to Bitcoin, emphasizing speed and usability.

2. Technology & Architecture

The network merges Bitcoin’s proof-of-work (PoW) security with Avalanche pre-consensus – a layer that allows nodes to agree on transaction order before blocks are mined, reducing confirmation times to under 3 seconds. This hybrid design aims to resolve the scalability trilemma by balancing decentralization, security, and speed. In November 2025, eCash became the first PoW chain to implement Avalanche-based finality, as noted in network upgrades.

3. Tokenomics & Use Cases

XEC has a fixed supply of 19.96 trillion tokens (≈19.96B post-2021 redenomination). It’s used for:
- Transaction fees: Burned to offset inflation from staking rewards.
- Staking: Users lock XEC to participate in Avalanche consensus, earning rewards while securing the network.
- Real-world integrations: The Northern Mariana Islands’ MUSD stablecoin runs on eCash, showcasing institutional adoption.

Conclusion

eCash reimagines Bitcoin’s infrastructure for high-speed payments, blending PoW reliability with Avalanche’s efficiency. Its focus on merchant adoption and stablecoin partnerships could position XEC as a bridge between crypto and traditional finance. Can its hybrid consensus maintain decentralization while scaling to Visa-level throughput?