Are we technically messing with the Bitcoin Coin cap?

[Kakmakr]

We say, Bitcoin will never have more than 21 000 000 coins, but with every hard fork, we technically add coins to the 21 000 000 total, even if this new fork is defined as a new coin. If you had X amount of coins at the time of the fork, it gets added to the coins you already have on the new fork.

I know the forks compete to be the longest chain and coins should be duplicated on both forks, but should people not be faced by the question to sell or use those coins on only one side of the fork. You get coins on both forks, but if you sell, say 5 BTC, then the same amount of BCC should be subtracted on the other fork.

If the new fork is a new coin, then nobody should get free tokens on the new coin, based on their previous ownership of the legacy coins?

Just a thought, let's discuss. ^smile^

[1714005011]

1714005011

[Herbert2020]

you can not stop people from forking bitcoin. they have been doing it for as long as bitcoin existed. coins like Litecoin were forked from bitcoin back in the early years (2009?). recently the forks changed shape and they are forking from bitcoin and take a snapshot of a block to do a free airdrop: bitcore (BTX).

now there is a new thing, when they fork from bitcoin and build on top of its last block: Bitcoin cash.

bitcoin is open source and there is nothing stopping them from doing any of this. the free market will eventually decide the value of each of these forks and their adoption.
price: LTC=0.016, BTX=0.0005, BCH=0.12
usage: LTC=small, BTX=nothing, BCH=nothing

but none of this means the bitcoin total supply or its cap is changing. there is still going to be only 21 million BITCOIN. and billions and billions of other coins.

[Emoclaw]

No, we technically don't increase the cap.
A fork is a fork, not related to the main chain in any shape or form.
That's like saying any other coin, which in one way or another is a fork of Bitcoin, adds coins to Bitcoins cap which it doesn't.

The fact that BCC forked the chain as well up to a date means nothing. Bitcoin was designed to allow for such forks.

[fossilized]

I suppose we can say we are messing around with the crypto' s market capitalisation as a whole, rather than bitcoin itself. I agree that there is no question about btcs market cap, but each fork does increase the market cap of crypto as a whole.

I do think we will start moving away from a market cap measurement or find some other way of valuation that takes into account liquidity.

[audaciousbeing]

We say, Bitcoin will never have more than 21 000 000 coins, but with every hard fork, we technically add coins to the 21 000 000 total, even if this new fork is defined as a new coin. If you had X amount of coins at the time of the fork, it gets added to the coins you already have on the new fork.

I know the forks compete to be the longest chain and coins should be duplicated on both forks, but should people not be faced by the question to sell or use those coins on only one side of the fork. You get coins on both forks, but if you sell, say 5 BTC, then the same amount of BCC should be subtracted on the other fork.

If the new fork is a new coin, then nobody should get free tokens on the new coin, based on their previous ownership of the legacy coins?

Just a thought, let's discuss. ^smile^

You have made a valid point based on the way you see it because with several forks coming the it means 21,000,000* number of forks but at the same time, the market capitalization from the beginning was not designed to take care of forks maybe another form of capitalization for that coin can be pushed. Also, forked coins are treated as alt and we don't do alt capitalization with bitcoin.

[tiggytomb]

Bitcoin remains the same no matter how many forks we have.. 

It gives the user more choice but has zero impact on the way bitcoin is structured, my only hope is that we don't get an influx of forks offering free coins like BCH did because that took up a lot of time for everyone and just causes confusion.

[Kakmakr]

No, we technically don't increase the cap.
A fork is a fork, not related to the main chain in any shape or form.
That's like saying any other coin, which in one way or another is a fork of Bitcoin, adds coins to Bitcoins cap which it doesn't.

The fact that BCC forked the chain as well up to a date means nothing. Bitcoin was designed to allow for such forks.

I think it is related to the main chain. The previous owners of the legacy coin, gets credited on the new fork. It is like a free air drop of a new Alt coin, but every person owning coins on the legacy chain, gets those coins handed to them, while people with no coins, gets nothing.

You are creating a whole new coin and all ownership of these coins should start from scratch.

Do not get me wrong, I just love the FREE coins. I just think this method of forking would lead to a scenario where people will be forking Bitcoin, just to get some FREE coins, and this will not be beneficial in the future. The more coins we add, the more we devalue our existing coins.

These coins are not mined as new coins, but just duplicated like cancer cells from the normal cells. ^hmmmmm^

[Pursuer]

I don't even know why this question exists in your mind. and you are not alone, I have seen many others ask this. but to me it is very clear.

let me put it this way. consider any of the other chains you want. now if I have some coins on any of those chains like for example if I buy some bitcoin cash now, ..
...can I send those coins to my bitcoin wallet?
...can I use that coin to pay a merchant that is accepting bitcoin?
obviously the answer to both questions is NO. so we really didn't change anything about bitcoin, did we?

[Kakmakr]

I don't even know why this question exists in your mind. and you are not alone, I have seen many others ask this. but to me it is very clear.

let me put it this way. consider any of the other chains you want. now if I have some coins on any of those chains like for example if I buy some bitcoin cash now, ..
...can I send those coins to my bitcoin wallet?
...can I use that coin to pay a merchant that is accepting bitcoin?
obviously the answer to both questions is NO. so we really didn't change anything about bitcoin, did we?

What about the coins you did not buy? The coins that were duplicated after the fork was done? Those people might have bought it at some time, but they are getting free coins now, for doing nothing. You receive coins, because you owned coins before the fork. If you were clever, you could have bought say 1000 Bitcoins before the fork and then after the fork you sell those Bitcoins and make massive profits from selling the Bitcoin cash. < The free coins you received >

People might exploit this to force forks in the future, just to get those free coins.

[HeRetiK]

I know the forks compete to be the longest chain and coins should be duplicated on both forks, but should people not be faced by the question to sell or use those coins on only one side of the fork. You get coins on both forks, but if you sell, say 5 BTC, then the same amount of BCC should be subtracted on the other fork.

You're going to love Segwit2x then. However apart from potential replay attacks, you couldn't mirror every transaction even if you wanted to. By their very definition forks lead to transaction divergence.

If the new fork is a new coin, then nobody should get free tokens on the new coin, based on their previous ownership of the legacy coins?

BCH strives to replace the original chain, so it's only natural that it's a continuation of the main chain balances. To some people BCH portraits the original vision of Bitcoin, depriving them of their BCH balance would be basically stealing their Bitcoins as from their point of view BTC-Segwit is the alt coin.

What about the coins you did not buy? The coins that were duplicated after the fork was done? Those people might have bought it at some time, but they are getting free coins now, for doing nothing. You receive coins, because you owned coins before the fork.

See above. If to you BCH is Bitcoin, then BTC is the alt coin that usurped Bitcoin's original name. In that case you did buy BCH when you bought your pre-fork Bitcoins, it's just that the official name changed.

If you were clever, you could have bought say 1000 Bitcoins before the fork and then after the fork you sell those Bitcoins and make massive profits from selling the Bitcoin cash. < The free coins you received >

If it were so easy and risk-free, what stopped you from doing so yourself?

People might exploit this to force forks in the future, just to get those free coins.

You can't force a fork without miner, developer and community support.

Apart from that, everyone is free to make their own airdrops and premined alts if they want to get free (alt) coins. It's just a question of whether they are going to be worth something.

[Kaller]

What surprised me is when the fork happened the price of Bitcoin actually started going UP. I couldn't believe it... you would think when 20% of the miners switch over to another coin (which shall not be named) the price would drop, but obviously this was not the case!