To say what bitcoin is and in what way it can be used makes no sense now, because anyone interested in it has long understood how it works. Bitcoin has acquired a large family of improved copies, which in turn have some purpose in the crypto world. In this article we will try to show you which copies can and should not appear at all, how they differ from the first cryptocurrency and what the crypto community thinks of them.
Bitcoin Cash
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was created to solve the problem of bitcoin, namely to increase scalability. Bitcoin Cash is a HardFork of bitcoin. When there was a peak of Bitcoin blockchain congestion, transfers and commissions were delayed, and the guilt lay entirely on the size of the block, which was only 1 mb. The Community, along with the developers, were unable to reach consensus on Bitcoin, and it was decided that HardFork would be the first cryptocurrency, and that Bitcoin Cash would be released. It was released in 2017, with Amory Cechet and Roger Vere as the main leaders.
Project development
HardFork has helped solve several problems:
- Scalability. Translations in BCH take no more than two minutes.
- Commission. 1 cent commission for each transaction.
- Decentralization. The development of the project is accompanied by several teams that are scattered around the world, which helps increase decentralization. There are also no large mining pools in the network that focus massive computing power.
Roger Vere is believed to be one of the earliest followers of Bitcoin. It is believed that without it, the entire crypto industry would have grown much slower. Vere has talked about blockchain and bitcoin at many events. It acquired 400,000 BTC in 2011, making it a dollar billionaire. Before bitcoin, he was the owner of MemoryDealers, a company that supplied computer parts. He also spent 10 months in prison, and he ended up there selling fireworks on eBay, which were explosive and designed to kill rodents.
It has the domain bitcoin.com, is often confused with the real address of the cryptocurrency, and now the crypto exchange is based on it
With the help of the domain, Roger Vere attempted an adventure: he said that now Bitcoin Cash is the main Bitcoin. Because of this, many newcomers began to invest in Bitcoin Cash. But this did not last long, the crypto community began to condemn Vera. Roger even recorded the apology on video, but it didn’t look real.
Later another HardFork network was held – introduced Schnopp signatures for translations, which made them more convenient. It turned out that Satoshi Nakamoto did not simply create a 1 mb block size of the first cryptocurrency. This amount of memory removed the risk of double translations.
Bitcoin Cash discovered this problem at the beginning, but found a way to fix it.
Bitcoin SV
Bitcoin SV, or simply BSV, is a HardFork Bitcoin Cash. BSV occurred at the time of the creation of BCH, with the team divided into two camps. Some, led by Roger Vera, wanted to develop the entire network while increasing the block size, introducing new features for transactions between users. Others, led by Craig Wright, planned to change the initial structure of the network and make more only the block itself. No compromise was reached and HardFork took place with the subsequent introduction of Bitcoin SV.
Project development
Bitcoin SV has a contradictory image in the crypto community, all thanks to Craig Wright.
Before HardFork BSV took place, Craig Wright had a good relationship with Calvin Air, a billionaire who made his fortune in gambling. Together they began to implement a block increase in Bitcoin SV, saying that it was essential for the crypto community. In the summer of 2019, SoftFork took place – updated the network “Quasar” which allowed it to start work with blocks up to 2 GB. If you think about it that way, BSV won’t have a transaction problem because of SoftFork, but the question is – who needs it? The answer is no one. Since when HardFork was conducted, the size of the BSV block was 64 MB and this was completely sufficient. The reputation of Wright also plays an important role, and much can be said about her. Take Craig’s statement that he has 1 million BTC, but of course he has not been able to provide proof of his words. It looks like two comrades decided to create a cryptocurrency, and thanks to Kelvin Eyre’s substantial budget to be able to make Pump and Dump. If this is not the case, it is not clear for what purpose BSV is needed.
Bitcoin Diamond
Another HardFork bitcoin, Bitcoin Diamond, emerged in 2017. The project was developed by the Chinese, who decided to remain anonymous as well as the coin.
Bitcoin Diamond’s key difference from Bitcoin is:
- The volume of the block increased to 8 MB.
- BIP 44 algorithm that increased the anonymity of translations.
- The rate of change of each block has been adjusted, the speed of transactions and commission has decreased.
- The mining algorithm is optimized for the GPU.
Project development
The chip of the project in the online shop BCD Bazaar, on it there is an opportunity to buy products for Bitcoin Diamond. The peculiarity is that the site has free delivery to any place in the world, but the price with ordinary shops does not differ much.
The project is now in a lull, with no news since its launch. The crypto community believes that BCD is shitcoin. From the hardware wallet company Ledger was a comment – Bitcoin Diamond works on illegal schemes, but there was no confirmation of this statement.
Bitcoin Gold
In 2018, a new HardFork of Bitcoin was born, Bitcoin Gold (BTG). The project manager is Chinese businessman Jack Liao. The goal is to do so, as Satoshi Nakamoto bequeathed: “One processor, one voice.”
The creators of BTG changed the SHA-256 algorithm to Equihash, which eliminated the Bitcoin Gold miner by using asykes, adding the decentralisation of the coin.
Project development
What is interesting is that Jack Liao is the director and owner of LightningAsic, a hardware manufacturing company, and why he made such a controversial decision is not clear. In any case, just a couple of months after the launch of Bitcoin Gold, the project began a series of problems:
- There is a problem with double translations on the network, which cannot be solved now.
- The network was attacked, and the attackers were able to obtain $18 million.
- The crypto community found that the project had 100,000 BTG, while the coin had a maximum of $500, which means the project had $50 million. With these tools, you can drop the Bitcoin Gold course.
Two years after the creation of Bitcoin Gold, the crypto community concluded that BTG was shitcoin.
Wrapped Bitcoin
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) – Stablecoin provided by Bitcoin. It is an analogue of Bitcoin, but only on the Etherium network. Its benefits include increased transaction speed, the ability to use decentralized applications and smart contracts. You can create wrapped bitcoin on their website, but you have to go through identity verification. During creation for 1 Bitcoin you get 1 WBTC.
When WBTC is no longer needed, it is destroyed and returned to BTC.
Project development
Wrapped Bitcoin involved DeFi companies such as Kyber, Compound, Dharma, MakerDAO, Set Protocol, BitGo, and Ren. You can use Stablecoin as collateral when you need to use crypto-credit.
If you look at things soberly, you can see the rapid growth of the project and therefore conclude that it will find its audience. As the project is still young, in 2021, it will be only two years, and it’s only serious competitor is the Lightning Network protocol, which has been in place since 2015. The WBTC has already surpassed its capitalization competitor and acquired an impressive audience.
BitcoinHD
BitcoinHD or BHD is also a HardFork of Bitcoin dating back to August 3, 2018. It is not known who is leading or developing the project. The difference between BHD and BTC is that it can be used on a hard disk, allowing each computer owner to obtain a cryptocurrency. Also one of the advantages is that energy costs are greatly reduced.
Project development
One update said that BitcoinHD can use up to 10,000 translations per second, which is a pretty good indicator. As early as 2020, there was a news report that read, SEC approved the project as a security. And this is considered a pretty good license for this kind of project.
Bitcoin 2
Bitcoin 2 or BTC2 is not called HardFork Bitcoin, but is essentially a scam project that emerged from nowhere. The main difference from simple Bitcoin is that it has now changed the algorithm from PoW to PoS.
Project development
That’s out of the question. After the project was released, there was no news about it at all. The only significant leap was recorded between late May and early June 2019. Then the price went up to $26.43, obviously it was a pump of some “whale”.
Bitcoin Rhodium
Taking into account the founders’ words – Bitcoin Rhodium is not a HardFork of Bitcoin, but a new cryptocurrency. But who the founder is is unclear, because they include a lot of people who are scattered all over the world and know only names.
Differences from Bitcoin:
- The block size was changed to 4 MB.
- Improved the mining algorithm to PoW X13.
- It was also planned to introduce a protocol that would serve to increase the confidentiality of transfers.
Project development
If you visit the official website of the project, you will be able to understand that the site has been created quickly. And on the main page there is an interesting inscription:
“We do not make any guarantees or promises regarding the cost of XRC and the implementation of the whole project.”
A project that does respect itself wouldn’t write such a statement on its page. This could provoke mistrust on the part of coin holders.
Lightning Bitcoin
The next HardFork Bitcoin took place at the end of 2017. Who was involved in the development of this project is unknown. But we know who sponsored it – it was Chinese businessman Jack Zhang.
White Pepper states that Lightning Bitcoin is a symbiosis of bitcoin blockchain and ethereum.
Project development
Lightning Bitcoin initially gained support from such well-known companies in the crypto community as: BTCC, Huobi, OKEx, CEX.io, BtcTrade, TaiYi, Allcoin and BCEX. But that did not add to the benefits for the project’s further growth.
Bitcoin Atom
The Bitcoin HardFork that took place in early 2018 was called Bitcoin Atom (BCA).
The anonymous creators of the coin focused on PoW and PoS when mining the coin. This was done in order to reduce the likelihood of an attack and make the network more stable.
Project development
The development of the project was absent from the very beginning, but there is an assumption that this was in the plans. Since the coin’s release, its price has dropped from $1,540 to $2.
There is no up-to-date information about it.
Conclusion
As you can see, bitcoin has many – “brothers”. We have written only about the most popular ten, but the first cryptocurrency has about 33 others, which you may not even have heard of.
As you can understand, if the name of the cryptocurrency is BTC or Bitcoin, then this is done only to attract attention to the coin.