Too Long; Didn't Read
If you are following the crypto news at all, there has been a lot of activity around Bitcoin and various factions of its users who are “forking” the protocol resulting in many different “Bitcoins”: Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, (and Bitcoin Silver?) and the upcoming duel for market share between Bitcoin Segwit1x vs Segwit2x. I would like to briefly explain what forking means from the perspective of a blockchain and its users. I’ll conclude with some thoughts on why we are seeing so much forking and explain the tradeoffs inherent in such a decision.