eCash (XEC) emerged as the revamped iteration of Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHA), itself a derivative of Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Marketed as a "cryptocurrency designed for electronic cash usage," eCash primarily focuses on facilitating transactions for goods and services. The rebranding took place on July 1, 2021, as part of an effort to distinguish itself from its predecessor.

A notable change is the introduction of "bits" as the base units for eCash, replacing the cumbersome decimal places of Bitcoin Cash ABC. Consequently, instead of sending 0.00001000 BTC, transactions with eCash are denominated in 10 bits. Adding a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus layer named "Avalanche" (distinct from the blockchain Avalanche or AVAX), eCash aims to enhance its functionality.

Upon the rebranding, eCash declared a conversion of all BCHA coins to XEC at a ratio of one to one million. The development team has identified three key objectives for improvement:

• Scaling transaction throughput from 100 transactions per second to exceeding five million transactions per second.

• Enhancing the payment experience by reducing transaction finality time.

• Extending the protocol and establishing fork-free upgrades.

These initiatives collectively underline eCash's commitment to evolving as a high-throughput, efficient, and user-friendly electronic cash solution.

In justifying this shift, Sechet pointed out, "No other money has eight decimal places. Why should crypto? Cryptocurrencies with a lower unit price also enjoy higher bull market appreciation. Because the eCash team is incentivized by both tech and price improvement, this improvement was a no-brainer."

Sechet's involvement in the cryptocurrency space extends beyond eCash, as he was a key figure in the development of Bitcoin Cash, leading its initial fork from Bitcoin in August 2017 and overseeing subsequent forks, including the one that resulted in Bitcoin SV (BSV) in November 2018 and the most recent fork from Bitcoin Cash in November 2020. Prior to his contributions to cryptocurrencies, Sechet held positions as a software engineer at Facebook and served as a lead developer at Stupid D Compiler.

The development team behind eCash (XEC) has a strategic vision to position the coin as Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible, fostering interoperability with the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector on Ethereum (ETH). To ensure the success of eCash, the developers have outlined five fundamental missions:

1. 1. Ensuring anonymous transactions
2. 1. Guaranteeing the immutability of transactions
3. 1. Ensuring transactions remain nearly cost-free
4. 1. Enforcing globally secure transactions with a finality of fewer than three seconds
5. 1. Designing the coin's infrastructure as a public good, sustained through its social contract

To realize these objectives, the eCash development team has crafted an ambitious roadmap, featuring key milestones such as canonical transaction ordering for scalable block processing, adoption of Schnorr Signatures for batched signature validation, faster block propagation through technologies like graphene, UTXO commitment with blockchain pruning for quicker initial synchronization, implementation of the Merklix-Meta Tree for scalable block processing, and adaptive block sizes to support market-driven growth up to 1TB blocks.

The ultimate aim of these initiatives is to elevate eCash to the capability of handling 50 transactions per user per day, with scalability envisioned for up to 10 billion users. Such ambitious solutions underscore the commitment of eCash's developers to establish the coin as a technologically advanced and widely adopted cryptocurrency.

Unlike an ERC-20 token, eCash (XEC) operates as its own blockchain, akin to the structure of Bitcoin (BTC). This distinction underscores the independent nature of eCash, emphasizing its unique blockchain framework rather than relying on the Ethereum network's ERC-20 token standard. The decision to implement PoS in conjunction with PoW showcases the developers' strategic approach to harnessing the benefits of multiple consensus mechanisms, ultimately aiming to optimize transaction speed, security, and the overall functionality of the eCash blockchain.