Some time ago, one of the most widespread criticisms of Bitcoin said something like this: "It is true, the supply of bitcoins is limited, but since cloning software and forking is free in all respects, the limit of fact, does not exist.
The forks are an effective dilution and make the Bitcoin system's commitment to a hard cap irrelevant ". For a moment in 2017, it looked like Bitcoin was forking weekly.
One of the peculiarities of Bitcoin is the fact that anyone can replicate its UTXO set without cost and claim affiliation to the original chain. But how does a monetary network survive that undergoes a constant state of fragmentation?
The failure of hard forks
With hindsight, it is now clear that competing forks have been completely defeated. This was not taken for granted in 2017 and is indicative of bitcoin's continued maturation as a monetary asset. Today, BCH covers a meager 1,7% of bitcoin's market capitalization.
And Bitcoin sv (BSV) represents a measly 1%. Transaction fees, useful for ensuring the sustainability of miners' revenues and thus the long-term network security, are strong in bitcoin (> 700k $ per day) and practically non-existent in BCH and BSV (137 $ / day and 73 $) / day in the last week, respectively quotation).
If they fail to raise demand for their blockspace - and no catalyst is currently emerging to reverse this trend - they will be forced to reintroduce inflation, centralize block signing, or devise a new consensus mechanism.
Today, BCH is facing an insurrection and another hard fork due to the inability to finance its core developers. Unlike Bitcoin, BCH has never developed a significant cronyism system.
So now some BCH developers are holding the chain hostage and demanding that the miners be expropriated to subsidize their work. The looming hard fork is probably a consequence of having founded the chain on a secessionist impulse.
If the reaction to the problems is to fork the chain rather than solve them, a series of future forks will likely follow. All of this bodes ill for future minority forks. As BCH, BSV and other more marginal forks fade into irrelevance, investors will be very wary of any future protest forks.
A narrow set of principles behind Bitcoin
Bitcoin is designed in such a way that users agree on a very narrow set of principles in order to achieve global convergence on a UTXO set. The smaller the topic space, the less likely the project is to be torn apart by irreconcilable differences between users.
By refusing to compromise on its key features, Bitcoin has maintained its shine by avoiding falls. Interestingly, it is this rigidity that allows it to attract a diverse user base.
Bitcoin users need not believe in anything other than a solid digital monetary system with a limited and fast supply. There is no guarantee that Bitcoin will become the Internet's only currency. But at least we can silence an old criticism.
