It can now be said that Bitcoin forks are like buses, you wait for a long time and then three arrive at once. Turning up on the scene right after the Bitcoin Gold (BTG) fork and failed SegWit2X fork is Bitcoin Silver (BTSI). BTSI makes an appearance with the team behind the latest split from the Bitcoin blockchain promising to make Bitcoin mining decentralized again.

What we know

Currently the majority of information concerning the latest Bitcoin fork can be found on a bitcointalk forum page. According to the post, the purpose of Bitcoin Silver is to open up Bitcoin mining to decentralization and produce a coin with a mining system in line with Satoshi Nakamoto’s ideal of “one CPU one vote”. This is a continuation of the unhappiness felt by many in the community regarding the emergence of a small number of mining groups that are able to exert a good amount of influence over the Bitcoin network and its mining activity. The people behind Bitcoin Silver are still a mystery but seem to be rehashing arguments put forward by the Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold teams.

Similar to the methods employed by the Bitcoin Gold team, the Bitcoin Silver developers aim to change Bitcoin’s proof-of-work algorithm from SHA256 to Equihash and effectively do away with the need for specialized SHA256 mining equipment. In this way, mining for the coin will be assessable to many as consumer level hardware will be capable of carrying out the processes

The fork of the Bitcoin blockchain will occur at some time in December, with the predetermined block height still to be revealed. The process will mirror those used in previous forks and result in the generation of yet another type of Bitcoin.

The distribution method of will copy that used by Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and all Bitcoin holders who possess BTC private keys will receive Bitcoin Silver at a rate of 1 BTC = 1 BTSI. At this stage, it is too early to determine if the fork will receive widespread support or any support at all.

BTSI Comparison

Supply: 21 Million

PoW algorithm: Equihash

Mining Hardware: GPU

Block Interval: 30 sec

Block size (actual): 1M (2-4M)

Difficulty adjustment: Every block

Segwit: Yes

Replay protection: Yes

Unique address format: Yes

There are very few details concerning this fork with the development team still in the process of confirming the legitimacy of the project. A number of observers in the cryptocurrency space feared that the Bitcoin Cash fork in August would open the floodgates to a host of copycat alternatives. Unfortunately, this appears to be true. At this point, we can only wait for the situation to develop and then gauge the validity of the project. If this project does actually take off, it will also be interesting to see what impact it will have on the market as cryptocurrency traders have shown themselves to be highly influenced by the advent of Bitcoin forks.