Bitcoin fork: the fate of zero return and the truth behind it

In the world of digital currency, Bitcoin is undoubtedly the most representative asset. As its influence continues to expand, various phenomena surrounding Bitcoin have emerged one after another, the most eye-catching of which is "fork". So, will the Bitcoin fork return to zero? This question is not only related to the interests of investors, but also an important part of understanding blockchain technology and digital currency ecology.

The concept of Bitcoin forks can be traced back to the core Bitcoin protocol. Bitcoin's blockchain is composed of a series of blocks, each of which contains a certain number of transaction records. However, as the Bitcoin network continues to develop, different views on the protocol are inevitable. Such disagreements often lead to forks in the Bitcoin network and the formation of new cryptocurrencies. For example, in August 2017, Bitcoin forked into Bitcoin Cash. The main reason for this fork was different views on the speed of transaction processing.

From a technical perspective, Bitcoin forks can be divided into hard forks and soft forks. A hard fork refers to a major modification to the Bitcoin protocol, resulting in incompatibility between the old and new versions, forming two independent blockchains. A soft fork, on the other hand, refers to an improvement to the existing protocol that is still compatible with the old version. A hard fork usually triggers greater market volatility because it involves the issuance of new currencies, and investors need to reassess their value.

So, will forked coins return to zero? First of all, we need to clarify the purpose and background of the fork. Forks are usually to correct certain problems in the Bitcoin network or to implement new functions. For example, the emergence of Bitcoin Cash is to increase transaction speed and reduce handling fees. However, not all forked coins have lasting vitality. Many forked coins are popular in the market in the short term, but as time goes by, forked coins that lack practical applications and technical support will often be gradually eliminated by the market and eventually return to zero.

Take Bitcoin Cash as an example. Although it received widespread attention in the early days of its launch, its price fluctuated dramatically as the market changed, and it gradually lost its competitive advantage over Bitcoin. In contrast, projects like Ethereum have successfully maintained the vitality of its ecosystem through continuous technical updates and community support. Therefore, when investors choose forked coins, they need to carefully analyze the technical support, community activity, and market demand behind them.

In the ecosystem of forked coins, the participation of the technical team and the community is crucial. Many successful forked coins have a strong development team and active community support. For example, Litecoin, as the "silver" of Bitcoin, has strong technical support behind it and is committed to continuous product iteration and market application. In this case, the value of Litecoin can be relatively stable, and investors are more willing to hold it.

However, the fate of forked coins is not always so clear. Many forked coins eventually collapse in value due to a lack of clear direction or goals. For example, some forked coins do not have a clear white paper or technical roadmap when they are launched, which leads to a lack of confidence in their future development by investors. Such projects often find it difficult to survive in a highly competitive market and eventually return to zero.

In addition to technical and community support, market sentiment is also an important factor affecting the value of forked coins. In a bull market, investors tend to be very enthusiastic about emerging forked coins, driving their prices up rapidly. However, the arrival of a bear market may cause the value of these forked coins to drop sharply. Taking the cryptocurrency market in 2018 as an example, many forked coins that were once in the limelight suffered heavy losses in the market correction, and even returned to zero.

In addition, the psychology of investors in forked coins is also worth paying attention to. Many investors are often affected by short-term market fluctuations and lack patience for the long-term development of projects. In this case, they may chase high prices when the forked coin prices rise, and panic sell when the prices fall, causing their own losses to increase. To succeed in investing in forked coins, investors need to analyze market trends rationally and keep a cool head.

When discussing the issue of Bitcoin forks going to zero, we should also pay attention to changes in regulatory policies. As the digital currency market grows, governments around the world are also increasing their supervision of cryptocurrencies. Some forked coins may face legal risks and their value may drop sharply due to failure to meet regulatory requirements. In this case, investors need to evaluate the compliance of the project to reduce investment risks.

In general, whether a Bitcoin fork will return to zero is not immutable and is affected by many factors. Technology, community support, market sentiment, investor psychology, and regulatory policies may all affect its value to varying degrees. For investors, understanding these factors will help them better assess the investment risks and opportunities of forked coins.

In this fast-changing digital currency market, investors need to remain sensitive to emerging technologies and market trends. Although the future of forked coins is full of uncertainty, through in-depth research and rational analysis, investors can still find their own investment direction in this market full of opportunities. The future digital currency ecosystem will be more diversified, and the fate of forked coins will continue to evolve with market changes. Whether choosing to hold, trade or wait and see, rational judgment and clear goals will be an important guarantee for investors to remain invincible in this complex market.

The four most famous international exchanges:

Binance INTL	OKX INTL	Gate.io INTL	Huobi INTL
China Line　APP DL	China Line　APP DL	China Line　APP DL	China Line　APP DL

Note: The above exchange logo is the official website registration link, and the text is the APP download link.

Will the Bitcoin fork return to zero? Explain the specific meaning of Bitcoin "fork". Many people don't know what Bitcoin fork is. Are the coins after Bitcoin fork a copycat coin? Is there still a future? Today, the editor will take you to understand the specific meaning of Bitcoin "fork". After reading the following introduction, I believe you will no longer be confused!
Chapter 1: "Fork" at the code level is called "fork"
The word "fork" most often appears on GitHub, a code hosting platform, which is a way for multiple programmers to jointly manage and collaborate on projects. To make it easier to understand, let me give you an analogy.
You are in a department of a company, such as the R&D department. There are 5 colleagues in the department, one of whom is the department manager. Now the department needs to submit a purchase plan for office supplies for next month to the company. The department manager first writes a purchase requisition using a wrod document and fills in the items he plans to buy on the requisition. Then the manager uploads the file to the department's shared document.
Colleague A copied the document, added the things he wanted to buy, and uploaded it to the shared document for approval by the manager. Colleagues B, C, and D also copied the document, added the things they wanted to buy, and applied for approval.
The department manager approved A's purchase plan and thought it was reasonable, so he merged A's demand into his own application. He approved B's plan and thought it was unreasonable, so he rejected B's demand and directly discarded B's plan. Then he continued to approve C and D. Either merge or discard.
Then B got angry and thought this was unreasonable, so he bypassed the department manager and submitted a purchase requisition directly to the company.
If the "purchase requisition" in the above example is replaced with a "program development project", the above process is a typical process of "project establishment", "branching", "request", "merge" and "fork".
The department manager set up a project and needed to write a purchase requisition. After he finished writing his part, he uploaded the document to the shared cloud to form a main code repository.
Then the four colleagues ABCD "branch" this document, add the features they want to the branch, and then submit an application to the main code, which is called "pull".
request", which means "request" in Chinese. Apply to merge your own modified parts into the main code base.
Then the manager, the main developer, will review and approve the "pull request". If it is qualified, he will merge this part of the code into the main code base. This process is called "merge", which is translated into "merge" in Chinese.
If the main developer thinks that the "pull request" is unreasonable, he will reject it, which is called "Close" in English.
The person who made the "request" felt that he was right, and that he could go out on his own, stop working with the manager, set up his own project, give it a different name, and then merge the code himself. This formed a "fork", which is translated into Chinese as fork.
The above is a process where all participants have development permissions. However, if someone outside the project team sees this project and wants to submit a feature code "pull
request, he must first "fork" the main code repository, and then submit a "pull
request". The person who does not have development permission does not have the right to submit code. The right to submit code is called commit permission in English.
This is the process of open source software management. This process is used for code updates and vulnerability fixes of open source software.
Bitcoin is an open source software. At the beginning, there was only one code repository, which was established by Satoshi Nakamoto and called Bitcoin. Later, many people "forked" Bitcoin and submitted "pull
Some people simply "fork" and become independent, forming new forks. Now there are many forks of Bitcoin, the open source software, the most famous of which are Bitcoincore, Bitcoin
unlimited, bitcoin classic, bitcoinXT, Bcoin...
Chapter 2: "Forking" in software versions is also called "development decentralization"
Bitcoin has so many versions and so many forks. All these different versions are compatible with each other in the actual operation of the Bitcoin network. Running these software at the same time will not cause the Bitcoin network to split. We call these different compatible versions competitive implementations. Multiple versions of software implement the same function, and each version has its own users. This is the competition between software versions.
These multiple versions can also have some additional unique features, as long as they do not affect compatibility with other versions.
There are many benefits to running multiple versions on the same network. The most important changes to software features and protocols require multiple versions of compatibility development, and all competing developers need to consult and test all implementation codes with each other, which will increase the quality of the code. And because there are multiple versions of the entire network, a vulnerability in a single version will not cause the entire network to crash. The Bitcoin network is a coexistence of multiple versions, and developers compete with each other. This is development decentralization.
Chapter 3 Bitcoin blockchain "protocol upgrade" does not necessarily "fork (split)"
The Bitcoin network is going to deploy a new feature, which is called a "protocol upgrade". We update the software on our phones and computers. This is a very simple process. Just download a new version of the software and install it over it.
Because the goal of the Bitcoin network is to reach consensus among many nodes in the entire network, so if the Bitcoin network wants to implement a new major version upgrade and activate new major features in the entire network, it needs some special measures.
All new features that affect consensus must take special measures to prevent consensus failure during the upgrade process. The most important consensus in the Bitcoin blockchain is that miners must reach consensus on the format of blocks and transactions, that is, all miner nodes can recognize and accept the format of blocks and transactions.
The most important measure is to ensure that the vast majority of nodes in the entire network are ready, and then activate the new function at the same time. This requires that the software used by each node has the ability to send and receive certain specific signals to the entire network.
But this process is not very simple. Most major upgrades have the risk of consensus failure. Because the interests of all parties are different, some people may maliciously cause consensus failure during the upgrade process. If consensus fails, the Bitcoin blockchain may generate two or even more chains. This is called "split", also known as "fork".
There are two approaches to major Bitcoin protocol upgrades, one is called “Hard Fork” and the other is called “Soft Fork”.
Both hard forks and soft forks are ways to upgrade the Bitcoin protocol. They do not necessarily cause Bitcoin to split into two chains. The split is just the result of a failed upgrade. The "Bitcoin fork" that people often talk about does not refer to "Bitcoin split" in most senses, but to "Bitcoin protocol upgrade."
Chapter 4: Failure of Bitcoin Blockchain "Protocol Upgrade" May Lead to "Fork (Split)"
Once again, hard forks and soft forks are both ways to upgrade the Bitcoin protocol and will not necessarily cause Bitcoin to split into two chains. The split is only the result of a failed upgrade.
Both hard forks and soft forks may fail and may lead to splits. But as long as they are well managed and everyone upgrades in unison, there will be no problems.
If the upgrade fails, resulting in two chains, in most cases, it can be repaired with the efforts of the community. Small computing power often cannot mine blocks, and will tend to return to the large computing power chain to mine, and then unify after the split.
What if the two chains continue to exist? Then users will have two coins, and miners will have to think about which chain to mine.
There are also "forks" that intentionally "split" Bitcoin. The initiator's starting point is to create a different coin. Because the Bitcoin code is open source, the initiator only needs to copy the code, add the features he wants, and then mine to become independent. This kind of "fork" is equivalent to "split".
Chapter 5 Anyone can initiate a "fork (split)" of the Bitcoin blockchain
In fact, the Bitcoin code is open source, so anyone can copy the code, modify some features, and then release their own version. As long as there are miners to mine, if there are no other miners, then you can do it yourself, and you can fork out a chain.
In fact, any altcoin can be regarded as a "fork (split)" of Bitcoin. For example, LTC is an altcoin split from the zero block height of Bitcoin.
On April 26 last year, someone initiated a "fork (split)" of Bitcoin at the Bitcoin block height of 463604. Anyone who had coins at this height or before could get a coin called BTX at a 1:1 ratio. Most of the rules of this coin are the same as Bitcoin BTC, except that the block size is 20M and it has a segregated witness.
The most famous "fork (split)" of Bitcoin so far is BCC. On August 1, at block height 478558, Bitcoin split into a coin called Bitcoin Cash BCC. The block size is 8M and does not have the isolated witness feature. After this height, users who hold coins will be distributed BCC at a 1:1 ratio.
On August 24 last year, at block height 481824, Bitcoin initiated another "fork" and activated Segregated Witness, but this time it did not lead to a split. Moreover, this "fork" is the first half of Segwit2x, and the second half, the 2x upgrade, will be planned for November, at block height 494784, which will occur around November 18, 2017. Whether the "fork" will be equivalent to a "split" by then, we will have to wait and see.
Chapter 6 Conclusion
Fork and split, it's really hard to tell the difference.
It will take time to prove whether forking equals splitting. The reason why Bitcoin has been under pressure is that it is another step for the cryptocurrency community to mature and attract a wider range of users and investors. As for whether the price of Bitcoin will rise or fall after the fork, it will be more determined by the market!