This article contains four part:
the upcoming BCH fork
what is IFP
why IFP lead to a hard fork
is BCH still worth to invest after the fork
The upcoming BCH fork
11/15 is a big day to BCH community, because it is very likely to see a hard fork of BCH on that day.
What is IFP?
The IFP is the infrastructure funding plan, it enforce a certain amount (changed many times) of block reward to be donated to a set of addresses (developers).
Why IFP lead to a hard fork?
Actually, the basic idea behind IFP is good for BCH given that the developers are the same important as miners. Why the developers are so important? because BCH needs more business applications in its ecosystem, which needs more developers to contribute, and if developers could get rewards by their meaningful work, they will have more incentives to contribute, which is the same logic for miners.
you could also refer this article about the value of BCH: The reasons that I turned bullish on BCH
But the IFP is a bad plan, not because of the donation amount (to the developers), but because of the way to introduce it.
The first draft of IFP incurs strong resistance in the BCH community, partly because (from my point of view) there are no explanation on how to determine 12.5% is the reasonable amount, as well as no funding usage plan was released.
After the strong resistance from the community, the leading developer of bitcoin ABC, Amaury Sechet, still force to implement a revised plan, which not include BU team (who oppose the IFP) in the beneficiary list. This is a really bad move. At this point, the IFP is totally a war between the bitcoin ABC team and the BCH community.
What make me shocked is that Amaury claiming that "he won't see any problem even if 100% of the donation goes to ABC team" given the ABC team made a great contribution to BCH.
A better way to introduce IFP is to release the draft with detailed explanation on:
why this plan is good to BCH in the long term.
how to determine the donation amount
the detailed funding usage plan, including who can received the donation, based on what criteria.
What's more important after released the first draft of IFP is to listen to the community's opinions, and it may need months or even more time to determine a reasonable IFP without tearing the community into apart.
From my point of view, the best way to implement the idea behind the IFP is not introducing IFP, because not all miners are willing to donate to developers. The donation should be optional, so establish a donation fund focus on rewarding developers based on predetermined criteria should be the best way.
Is BCH still worth to invest after the fork?
If you are a long-term BCH investor, YES! But in short-term, the BCH price will definitely be impacted (but with a free candy instead).
In theory, after the hard fork, the market cap of BCH plus the market cap of 'BCH ABC coin' (forked) would equal to the market cap of original BCH, given the original BCH community split into two communities, whereas the computing power and the developers remains the same.
But in reality, of course, the thing will get more complicated. It is very likely that the new BCH will soon recover (partly depend on the market condition) its previous value given the strong 'brand' and the consensus of the BCH. Moreover, almost all the influential BCH supporters are oppose IFP now so that the BCH community will stay together and remain most of its value after the fork (except the ABC team and their supporters). But the new forked coin, let's call it 'BCH ABC coin', will face high uncertainty: whether the new community is strong enough, whether the new coin could widely accepted by other crypto investors, whether the ABC team could properly lead the new community, and so on.
In conclusion, the volatility of the BCH price will largely increased during this period and the short-term investor will face high risk (potential high rewards, of course), but in the long run, BCH is still a great investment!
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