Bitcoin Splits in Two Amid Feud (cnet.com)

Bitcoin is dividing in two. Disagreements about how to operate the cryptocurrency have led to a new strand called Bitcoin Cash, which is breaking off from the bitcoin system. From a report: Bitcoin Cash launches Tuesday in what is known as a "hard fork" from bitcoin, a virtual currency based on peer-to-peer transactions without any central authority or bank behind it. The new offshoot is a response to the increasing popularity of bitcoin, which is struggling to deal with massive numbers of transactions with its underpinning technology. The main bitcoin currency is adopting a system called Segwit2x that moves transactions out of the current blockchain, while bitcoin Cash will use bigger blocks within the blockchain. Bitcoin holders are set to receive the same amount of bitcoin cash as they have in bitcoin if the exchanges and wallets they use support the new coin, another report added. Exchanges including Kraken and ViaBTC have said they'll support both, while others like Coinbase and Poloniex have said they won't, citing uncertainty that bitcoin cash will have lasting market value.

Comments

Bitcoin Splits in Two Amid Fraud

[Anonymous Coward]

I fixed the headline...this is clearly a shell game of some sort. Someone is going to get very rich and a lot of little folks are about to get screwed.

Re:Bitcoin Splits in Two Amid Fraud

[Anonymous Coward]

Because there's no such thing as "free money"? And when someone promises you "free money" you can be assured it's a fraud?

When bitcoin first popped up, I mined enough bitcoin on my cheap laptop, and later sold it to pay off my house. The "cost" was perhaps a few cents of electricity. So I'd tend to disagree there's no such thing as "free money".

When gold was discovered in California, a few were fortunate enough to just pick up some nuggets off the ground, with very little effort.

Free money does exist, it's just rare and largely is about luck, like winning the lottery.

Re:Seems like a bad idea.

[JaredOfEuropa]

How will double spending be handled? If my BTC are represented on both ledgers and I spend mine on one ledger, how and when does the transaction show up on the other ledger?

Re:Cry more nerds!

[Oswald McWeany]

Anyone with even a bit of a critical mind should realize fairly quickly that Bitcoin can't work in wide use or long term (and the more use, the shorter the life).

Anyone with even a bit of common sense and the ability to read some economic theory should figure out the financial theory behind Bitcoin is crap and won't work.

When bitcoin first came out, I thought that; I still don't want anything to do with Bitcoin, but, I've got to give it my grudging respect. Not only has it lasted a lot longer than I (or most people) thought it would, it's got quite a loyal fanbase, keeps evolving and growing, and is (in general) increasing in value at quite a nice rate.

No, it can't go on increasing in value like that forever, but even if it only goes another 10 years before it pops, it's been a very profitable experiment for many people and lasted longer than an average tech company.

Re:How will this work?

[hord]

Not really like a split. More like a clone. This doesn't happen in the stock or currency world. Basically you now have two chains that operate on the same history but are now divergent.

I have no idea how the value of this will play out because it will depend on how strong the support is for each. If each gains equal support, I imagine a decline in valuation for both back to "normal". Otherwise you'll have one absorb the transaction space of the other and essentially just eliminate the loser's value overnight, probably. Depending on how long that plays out people are going to be trading on both which means potential volatility.

Popcorn-worthy from my seat.