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LESSONS

Forks that became altcoins

Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV, Bitcoin Gold and others forked the chain with changed rules. Each kept Bitcoin's history and lost its network. The market chose the original.

5 MIN READ
COURSE · Upgrades and governanceSTAGE 5 · MASTERLESSON 4 OF 7
Bars comparing forked coins' prices to bitcoin's.
LEVEL · Advanced
IN THIS LESSON · 4 OF 7
BY THE END YOU WILL BE ABLE TO ANSWER
  • Did the forks increase bitcoin's supply?
  • Why did forked chains lose value relative to bitcoin?
  • Who led Bitcoin SV, and what happened to his claim?
  • Look up Bitcoin Cash's price as a percentage of bitcoin's today. Enter it.

Then prove it: a 3-question quiz · a challenge. The lesson marks itself complete at 100%.

After this lesson you can: explain why forked coins are not bitcoin.

A hard fork copies the ledger: everyone who held bitcoin at the fork block held the new coin too. That made forks a tempting marketing device in 2017 and 2018. Dozens were announced. A few mattered briefly.

Bitcoin Cash (August 2017)

The big-block chain from the Blocksize War: 8 MB blocks, later 32 MB, no SegWit. Backed by large miners and a few prominent figures. It never approached bitcoin's hash rate, developer base or liquidity, and has traded at a small fraction of bitcoin's price since.

Bitcoin SV (November 2018)

A split from Bitcoin Cash led by Craig Wright, who claimed to be Satoshi (a claim UK courts rejected in 2024), with gigabyte-scale blocks. Delisted from major exchanges after its leadership's conduct; marginal today.

Bitcoin Gold, Diamond, Private and the rest

Mostly attempts to capture attention and the free coins. Several suffered 51% attacks because their hash rate was tiny. Most are effectively dead.

What the forks demonstrate

Table of the notable forks: Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV, Bitcoin Gold, and their outcomes.
The forks that mattered, briefly. Fork dates from the public record; see lesson sources.

  • Forking the code is easy; forking the network is not. Users, miners, exchanges, developers and liquidity stayed with the chain that kept the rules.
  • Forks do not inflate bitcoin. The new coins are not bitcoin; the 21 million cap is untouched.
  • Replay protection and other technical details matter when claiming forked coins; many people lost privacy or funds doing so carelessly.
  • The economic majority chooses the name. Whichever chain the market values is "bitcoin", and so far it has always been the one that changed least.

Forking the code is easy; forking the network of users, miners, exchanges, developers and liquidity is not.
What copies, and what does not.

MINI CHALLENGEPrice check

Look up Bitcoin Cash's price as a percentage of bitcoin's today. Enter it.

percent
CHECK YOURSELF
1/3 Did the forks increase bitcoin's supply?
2/3 Why did forked chains lose value relative to bitcoin?
3/3 Who led Bitcoin SV, and what happened to his claim?
pick an answer for each question

SOURCES

  1. What are bitcoin forks? (River Learn)
  2. Hard fork (River Glossary)
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