Right now the debate about a possible Bitcoin fork is very noisy and maybe it is the main factor that is driving the cryptocurrency price at the moment.
At press time, bitcoin value is less than $1000 with some traders that are liquidating their positions.
Amidst one of the more volatile period of bitcoin, developers seem not to be scared or worried about this two-year scaling debate.
Several miners are running the so-called solution “Bitcoin Unlimited“, a popular alternative bitcoin software that opened a discussion of a possible fork of the network which could generate two different digital currencies, a result similar to what happened with the recent Ethereum hard fork that lead to the creation of Ethereum Classic.
Bitcoin Core contributor Eric Lombrozo has taken a skeptical point of view, explaining that the bitcoin community is not new to this issues.
Bitcoin XT and Bitcoin Classic, or other software alternatives that aims at changing the bitcoin blockchain- related rules, have emerged, but also declined, over the last few days.
While users who support the Bitcoin Unlimited think that is the real future for bitcoin, arguing that a bitcoin fork will bring it as the winning software, critics view it as broken.
Lombozo explained:
“The idea you can change bitcoin by lobbying one group of stakeholders against another is fundamentally flawed, as is the idea you can force controversial consensus rule changes. Bitcoin requires more tactful politics.”
On the other hand, Bitcoin Unlimited supporter Peter Rizun believes that bitcoin will see a block size increase, making bitcoin competitive with the other alternative cryptocurrencies.
“In my opinion, there’s a 75% chance we get an upgrade to larger blocks in 2017,” he commented.
So, while some people substain that only one software will be able to survive after this possible bitcoin fork, other experts suggested that most people won’t move to a new blockchain, so Bitcoin Unlimited will lead to another digital currency.
But, of course, the greatest part of the community want only one bitcoin.
Bitcoin Core contributor Luke Dashjr said to Coindesk:
“A hard fork is by definition an altcoin that the entire community decides to adopt as a replacement. Since most of the community rejects Bitcoin Unlimited, it is impossible for it to become a hard fork. Anyone can fork at any time. That people don’t speaks to the strong incentives not to.”
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