Reading the title of this article you might think I am crazy and I have no idea what I am talking about. Bitcoin forked many times, I must be insanely dumb. Lol, hold your horses. Bitcoin cannot be forked for good reasons. It might surprise you when we start to think critically. First, what constitutes a Bitcoin fork?

I preferred to call it a split of the block chain, and I’ll explain. The Bitcoin white paper clearly defines the system with characteristics that determined what Bitcoin was right? It is a peer to peer electronic cash system. A chain of chronologically ordered transactions, recorded immutable, a permission less trust less system with incentives, how to claim reuse space and what not. Feel free to read up on the white paper. https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf So, the idea is that Bitcoin was released with a set of rules how everything works in such a system right? That’s what defines Bitcoin.

A split comes alone when a group of miners decides to change the rules and run on new sets of rules which constitutes a fork; or, it is a split of the chain the way I prefer to call it. A split is when the protocol takes a new direction where the original protocol continues. This concept is not difficult to understand. So, why is it that Bitcoin doesn’t fork?

As we have determined, Bitcoin was predefined with clear characteristics. What happens when the characteristics, rule sets, or protocol changed? Or so called fork? That’s right, it is no longer Bitcoin as it is a new set of rules and characteristics. Because, to be Bitcoin the system has to be true to the predefined characteristics, rules, or protocol right? This is why Bitcoin doesn’t fork.

A fork is in fact an airdropped coin that is different than Bitcoin. Bitcoin was mined into existence from genesis block. It cannot be forked and still retail this characteristic of being mined into existence over a 10-year period. Suddenly some 17 million coins were created overnight. That my friend, is not Bitcoin. Ironically, this is also what confused people the most, and that a lot of people cannot tell which chain was Bitcoin after such a split and which ones are airdropped something other than Bitcoin. People go off social media, they go off exchange tickers, some even go off prices of the coins. But in reality, there is only one Bitcoin and always will be only one Bitcoin which is the chain that stays true to what was predefined in the Bitcoin paper. The so called forks are in fact not Bitcoin but something else fundamentally different yet using Bitcoin name.

For the reason above, it is utter disrespectful to Satoshi Nakamoto. Instead of growing what Satoshi bring to the word, the so called forks, took from Satoshi. They took his hard work, changed it, and trying to make Bitcoin their own. As human beings, we cannot allow such act to grow because it goes against the very fabrics of morality.

Therefore, Bitcoin cannot fork, for there is only one Bitcoin which was defined in the white paper. When people change the protocol and calls it Bitcoin, it is an act of fraud. This is why it is also very important that we learn the characteristics of Bitcoin and being able to distinguish Bitcoin versus everything else out there with a Bitcoin name regardless of coin prices, exchange ticker symbols or what people tells us in social media. It is our own responsibility to understand. BTC, BCH, BSV, BTG, BCD…. had enough yet? One of these remains true to Bitcoin characteristics. If you can determine which one is Bitcoin, the future is bright.