Forks!

According to Roger Ver on his tweet, Bitcoin Cash will have a fork on November 15, 2020.

This will be the second one since Craig Wright and Calvin Ayre created bitcoin SV in November 2018.

So what is forking? Can we profit from it? Is it dangerous? Can we get actual money from it?

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What is fork?

A fork is basically an alteration of the correct bitcoin code or protocol. In other words, someone is changing the rules.

Imagine you are playing a game with others and then someone says "lets change the rules". Normally for the game to ramin intact, everyone needs to approve of the rules being changed. If that happen, the change will be implemented and everything will continue as normal.

If there is large consensus about changing the rule of the game, then 2 versions of the game will be created. One with original rules and the another with the new rules.

In other words, there is a fork in the game. Similar on the fork in the road.

The same goes to bitcoin code. Generally speaking, when a fork happened, you will have the original bitcoin and a new bitcoin.

Example: bitcoin cash changed the size of the block from 1mb to 8mb, so more transactions can be processed within the block. Therefore, there are some people who supports this new token called bitcoin cash and other people who stays to the original bitcoin.

All forks are created not equal. There are soft forks and hard forks.

Soft forks allow the new version play well along the original features

Hard forks don't allow features by the original and create a total different coin.

Importance of Forks.

First, you might want to switch over to the new rules and use the new because you think that it is better than using the original one.

Second, the fork can have an imoact to the bitcoin community, bitcoins adoption and even bitcoin price.

Finally, making a profit by selling the new coins.

Imagine you have accumulated a high amount of points, now, someone wants to change the rules but you don't want to lose your points. So the new game will start in a point with the same points you accumulated.

When a fork occurs, anyone holding any amount of bitcoin can get the same amoubt of the new currency. But this situation doesn't automatically happens everytime but you do need to claim that coins. Every coins has a different claiming mechanism.

Once you claimed the new coin, you will decide if you will hold them or sell them.

Why fork occurs?

When forking trends started with bicoin cash, it seems that forking is a legitimate way of expressing discontent on the road the bitcoin is taking.

But since then, all the forks have the same main reason. The main reason is much more on a marketing gimmick than an actual ideology. In other words, if someone thinks that they can create new better one than bitcoin, they can create a brand new altcoin, there is no need to create a bitcoin clone.

The developers seemscto decide to fork bitcoin in three main reason.

1. Marketing Buzz - bitcoin forks is the new ICOs. Everyone is looking for a free coin so people are actively looking for information about them

2. Quick money for the devs - some of the fork are not the copy of bitcoin history. The new set of rules gives the developers a large amount of the new coins than they can sell it to the market once the coins starts to trade

3. Scams - scams can be created in a form of fork. They can stole your true bitcoin in the process of its claiming mechanism

How to safely claim coins in a fork?

1. Educate yourself about the project - research everything about the fork. Check who are the developers, what their track records, how far are they in their road map, what are other publication have written about them. If it makes sense to you, then perhaps the fork is indeed legit.

I hope this article gives you an idea what forks are and how they work as well as it benefits and potential problems.

So what do you think what will happen on bitcoin cash when the fork happens on November 15?

Any question or suggestion, please leave a comment below