The last few months of cryptocurrency history was perhaps predominantly characterized by a sense of drama, especially when it came to the many hard forks taking place on the Bitcoin network.
The very first fork successfully took place in August, which saw the inception of Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The BCH hard fork was initially approved by the Bitcoin community to address the growing concern of scalability on the network. Earlier this month, the Bitcoin network had one of its most controversial forks, the Bitcoin Gold (BTG) fork. This took place with varied levels of success. However, the Segwit2x fork, also scheduled for November, has since been canceled. The SegWit2X fork sought to increase block sizes to 2MB. However, according to the SegWit2X, they canceled the fork due to a lack of support.
The smallest events in the crypto world have the power to influence the marketplace, and the case of the canceled SegWit2X fork was no different. Following the announcement, the Bitcoin (BTC) price reached record-breaking heights before plunging back down again. In addition, several other altcoins experienced a slight price pump shortly following Bitcoin's price drop. However, it seems that BCH profited the most from the volatile period. Following the announcement, BCH prices climbed from $650 to reach up to $2,300, just last week. Since then, however, the cryptocurrency experienced a price drop and has since stabilized at around $1,000.
Some users state that the last two weeks proved an impressive achievement for BCH. However, it remains impossible to estimate what Bitcoin's market cap would be if the BCH fork did not happen.
Several enthusiastic cryptocurrencies have entered the market as of late, hoping to compete with Bitcoin. Something which has been made possible due to cryptocurrencies' decentralized nature. Theoretically, anyone can code their very own version of Bitcoin. However, the biggest obstacle for anyone Bitcoin fork is to retain some value after the fork is complete.
We have not yet seen the end of Bitcoin forks. Bitcoin Diamond is scheduled to occur at block 495,866. Another fork, Bitcoin Silver, has been suggested to allow for more decentralization by using a novel PoW algorithm. Bitcoin Silver will likely occur in December. In addition, Bitcoin Unlimited and Super Bitcoin will also rear their heads during the first half of 2018. So far it's impossible to gauge the likelihood of success for any planned fork, or how it will affect the Bitcoin industry.
So far the cryptocurrency analyst and software engineer, Jimmy Song, have seen his predictions come true. According to Song, 2018 would become known as a time of several hard forks for Bitcoin. It will be interesting to see how the several forks will influence the Bitcoin community in the future. Perhaps an upcoming fork will even prove more powerful than Bitcoin itself.
The very first fork successfully took place in August, which saw the inception of Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The BCH hard fork was initially approved by the Bitcoin community to address the growing concern of scalability on the network. Earlier this month, the Bitcoin network had one of its most controversial forks, the Bitcoin Gold (BTG) fork. This took place with varied levels of success. However, the Segwit2x fork, also scheduled for November, has since been canceled. The SegWit2X fork sought to increase block sizes to 2MB. However, according to the SegWit2X, they canceled the fork due to a lack of support.
The smallest events in the crypto world have the power to influence the marketplace, and the case of the canceled SegWit2X fork was no different. Following the announcement, the Bitcoin (BTC) price reached record-breaking heights before plunging back down again. In addition, several other altcoins experienced a slight price pump shortly following Bitcoin's price drop. However, it seems that BCH profited the most from the volatile period. Following the announcement, BCH prices climbed from $650 to reach up to $2,300, just last week. Since then, however, the cryptocurrency experienced a price drop and has since stabilized at around $1,000.
Some users state that the last two weeks proved an impressive achievement for BCH. However, it remains impossible to estimate what Bitcoin's market cap would be if the BCH fork did not happen.
Several enthusiastic cryptocurrencies have entered the market as of late, hoping to compete with Bitcoin. Something which has been made possible due to cryptocurrencies' decentralized nature. Theoretically, anyone can code their very own version of Bitcoin. However, the biggest obstacle for anyone Bitcoin fork is to retain some value after the fork is complete.
We have not yet seen the end of Bitcoin forks. Bitcoin Diamond is scheduled to occur at block 495,866. Another fork, Bitcoin Silver, has been suggested to allow for more decentralization by using a novel PoW algorithm. Bitcoin Silver will likely occur in December. In addition, Bitcoin Unlimited and Super Bitcoin will also rear their heads during the first half of 2018. So far it's impossible to gauge the likelihood of success for any planned fork, or how it will affect the Bitcoin industry.
So far the cryptocurrency analyst and software engineer, Jimmy Song, have seen his predictions come true. According to Song, 2018 would become known as a time of several hard forks for Bitcoin. It will be interesting to see how the several forks will influence the Bitcoin community in the future. Perhaps an upcoming fork will even prove more powerful than Bitcoin itself.