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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday October 25 2017, @01:02PM   Printer-friendly
from the first-they-ignore-you-then-they-laugh-at-you-then-they-fight-you dept.

As someone that follows the developments in Bitcoinland closely, it has been difficult to find an article that does a good job of summarizing the drama surrounding the community. This Forbes article (Google Cache) only scratches the surface, but does a good job doing so:

On or around November 16, Bitcoin, the original cryptocurrency created by a novel technology called blockchain — a masterpiece of game theory, cryptography and, of all things, the age-old ledger — will split into two chains, each with its own set of coins. Hodlers [Note: 'hodl' - is a meme that started here] should be happy about suddenly owning double the number of Bitcoins except for the fact that the question of which of these will be called the true Bitcoin is, for now, up in the air — and that could create turmoil in the market. Anyone willing to bet their money by selling one set of coins for another stands to take a financial hit — either because they've picked the wrong side, or, for technical reasons, because selling one set may actually cause a sale on both sides of the chain.

[...] How the first cryptocurrency reached this cliffhanger in its journey is a story that has been many years in the making and finally pits against each other what were strange bedfellows anyway: the cypherpunks who, years before Bitcoin even existed, developed the various technologies that finally resulted in the first true digital asset and the Silicon Valley types who popularized the cryptocurrency that now has at least tens of millions of users and a $100 billion market cap. Whether one side will prevail or their death match will destroy Bitcoin is anyone's guess.

Is this how Bitcoin finally dies? (This bitcoiner thinks bitcoin will be wounded, but will live on.)


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Snow on Wednesday October 25 2017, @02:47PM

    by Snow (1601) on Wednesday October 25 2017, @02:47PM (#587391) Journal

    You are wrong, sir.

    This fork is different (and it's explained in the article). With Bitcoin Cash, transactions were not valid on both chains. A Bitcoin Cash transaction was not valid on the main chain and vice-versa. That is not the case with this fork. This fork is intended to replace the main chain. Transactions will be valid on both chains (no replay protection). Also, Bitcoin Cash has an emergency difficulty adjustment algorithm that keeps it viable when hashing power is low. These forks do not.

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