To hell with Bitcoin Leftists - thanks to them we wouldn't have a failing and crushing Bitcoin Gold (BTG). The thought of a simple Bitcoin Proof-of-Work algorithm has people mining Bitcoin Gold with GPU to this day. The coin is presently selling at $25.6.
What a mess? All the way down from its launch price of $397.
The good thing is the hard-fork was able to restore decentralization on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Basic investors will hardly separate Bitcoin Gold from Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Cash from Bitcoin SV, and Bitcoin SV from the original Bitcoin. To help them understand, it's worth walking them down a brief history of bitcoin hardforks.
A hardfork is a separation of the blockchain into two distinct parts but with a common underlying concept.
Satoshi availed the first bitcoins through the Genesis Block. This block represents the foundation of Bitcoin and how innovators know it today. After the Genesis Block, the blockchain has undergone several hardforks. These include
Bitcoin XT
The very first bitcoin hardfork and was implemented by mike Hearn in 2014. The genesis block allowed at least 7 bitcoin transactions per second. With Bitcoin XT, the transaction would rise to 24 per second. Hearn proposed a higher block size and increased the size from 1 MB to 8 MB. By the end of 2015, Bitcoin XT was already running its software in over 1,000 nodes. However, the hardfork lost developer support and cranked.
Bitcoin Classic - The fall of Bitcoin XT left more community members still in pursuit of a high block size. As a result, a section of developers came up with Bitcoin Classic in 2016. The project however increased the blockchain block size to 2 MB, unlike Bitcoin XT. Bitcoin classic acquired massive support from over 2,000 nodes. The project exists to date, with its Bitcoin Classic (BSX) selling at a market price of $1.85.
Bitcoin Unlimited
The beginning of Bitcoin Unlimited remains shrouded in mystery. The developers even failed to specify what type of hardfork it was. However, the project allowed miners to reach a consensus on the block size. And have miners or nodes limit block size.
Segregated Witness
Segregated Witness or SegWit came about in 2015 under a bitcoin developer Peter Wuille.
Wuille aimed to limit the size of each bitcoin transaction. This was going to allow more transactions per second.
Bitcoin Cash
Bitcoin Cash split itself from the main blockchain in August 2017 as a result of developers who were against SegWit’s protocol updates.
The blockchain remains the most successful bitcoin hardfork and a few pundits agree it should be the original bitcoin blockchain.
Besides, the project is backed by prominent figures and several leading exchanges. Bitcoin cash increased the blocksize to 8MB and turned down the SegWit protocol.
Bitcoin Gold
The Bitcoin Gold followed only a month after Bitcoin Cash. A part of the community felt bitcoin mining had become complicated and specialized.
It turned out, these developers wanted to restore mining functionality using basic GPU (graphics processing units GPU).
After the hardfork, the developers took part in a post time and mined over 100,000 coins.
They then placed these coins under an endowment escrow for future financing of the Bitcoin gold ecosystem.
Conclusion
It’s important to learn the distinct features of each bitcoin hardfork. When you learn about the differences in both value and utility of Bitcoin’s forks, you will be able to make a better choice on what to invest.
