Author: Tom 2016-05-12 07:29:13
Published on: 2016-05-12T07:29:13+00:00
In a bitcoin-dev discussion on May 11, 2016, developers Gregory Maxwell and Timo Hanke discussed the potential forking of the Bitcoin blockchain and the creation of altcoins. Hanke argued that if existing hardware were to be forked out, it would inevitably lead to the creation of an altcoin since both chains could survive but not be used for anything else. He then compared this situation to a contentious hardfork that does not fork any hardware, suggesting that if the latter one is suspected to lead to the permanent existence of two chains, a hardfork that forks out hardware is even more likely to do so. In response, Maxwell pointed out that altcoins have their own genesis block and thus are not comparable to a fork in the Bitcoin blockchain. However, he also noted that there are already many altcoins in existence and that new ones are created all the time. Finally, he expressed his lack of concern about a fork in the Bitcoin chain.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T05:17:58.982751+00:00