Bitcoin forks: inside the latest craze to hit the cryptocurrency market

Bitcoin God arrived last month. Bitcoin Pizza was delivered in January. Bitcoin Private’s issuance date is… still a secret.

They’re just a few of the growing stable of so-called forks – a type of spinoff in which developers clone Bitcoin’s software, release it with a new name, a new coin and possibly a few new features.

Often, the idea is to capitalise on the public’s familiarity with Bitcoin to make some serious money, at least virtually.

Some 19 Bitcoin forks came out last year – but up to 50 more could happen this year, according to Lex Sokolin, global director of fintech strategy at Autonomous Research.

Ultimately, the number could run even higher now that Forkgen, a site enabling anyone with rudimentary programming skills to launch a clone, is in operation.

In a January 14 tweet, hedge fund manager Ari Paul predicted more than 10 per cent of the current value of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash will reside in new offshoots.

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Source: Bitcoin forks: inside the latest craze to hit the cryptocurrency market | afr.com