Hards forks are the real issue, not blockchain size

[DannyHamilton]

Why then, so you suppose the trust has already not evaporated?  There have already been forks.  One possible answer is "those forks have not been successful".  The answer would have to be, paradoxically, that only successful forks would somehow spell failure.  I don't think I would buy that argument, but please, explain you thinking further.

Which forks are you speaking of that have already been?

[solex]

If a fork with 60% exists and one with 40% I would probably see bitcoin as a failed experiment.

My gut feeling is that the BTC fx rate is the key determinant.

When BTC were worth a few cents then a 60/40 resulting in two permanent currencies was much more likely. No one has much to lose by choosing a "technically" better chain.

However, with the rate at $30 then everyone would be scrambling to use the "winning" fork. The fx rate for newly mined BTC on the smaller "losing" fork would collapse to a few cents. It would be doomed.

[Cubic Earth]

Why then, so you suppose the trust has already not evaporated?  There have already been forks.  One possible answer is "those forks have not been successful".  The answer would have to be, paradoxically, that only successful forks would somehow spell failure.  I don't think I would buy that argument, but please, explain you thinking further.

Which forks are you speaking of that have already been?

My understanding is that Solidcoin is a bitcoin fork.  I think there have been others.  Any peer to peer payment software that is based upon an existing blockchain would be a fork.

[CIYAM]

My understanding is that Solidcoin is a bitcoin fork.  I think there have been others.  Any peer to peer payment software that is based upon an existing blockchain would be a fork.

There has been no bitcoin *hard fork* (perhaps you are getting confused with a Github fork which is a different thing altogether).

A *hard fork* is when the one blockchain splits into two (or more) chains due to having different rules being run by the blockchain users (especially miners).

Solidcoin and all other *alt* coins were different blockchains altogether so they are not *hard forks* of Bitcoin at all (although their source code most likely would have been forked from Github from the main Bitcoin project).