Bitcoin Private a Triple Fork: Fork of a Fork of a Fork

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The world of cryptocurrency has seen many intriguing changes. Currencies are created out of thin air, whereas some of them are effective “forks” of others. In the case of Bitcoin Private, it is safe to say this is a fork of a forked currency that was also forked from Bitcoin. Not necessarily something that makes a lot of sense to people.

Too Much Forking Action

On paper, there is nothing wrong with forking existing cryptocurrencies. In most cases, this is done due to technical disagreements or a completely different vision. Bitcoin has seen its fair share of forks, although only one of them has effectively succeeded so far. Bitcoin Cash is, by far, the most stable forked off Bitcoin on the market. However, this trend of forking Bitcoin goes back for quite some time.

People who keep a close eye on privacy-oriented currencies will know about ZCash. This privacy-oriented coin has made some great headlines over the past 18 months. It is not an anonymous currency, though, as it lacks all necessary traits to achieve that goal. Few people are aware of how ZCash was effectively created. It is a Bitcoin fork at its core, with different features added on top of it. As such, it derives from the original Bitcoin “path” right away.

ZCash has seen its own forked currency, known as ZClassic. It removes some aspects of ZCash and replaces them with other solutions. As such, ZClassic is – in theory – based on Bitcoin, but it is even further removed from the original currency than its own predecessor ZCash. Hence, a fork of a fork is created, which is already confusing to most novice cryptocurrency enthusiasts.

What About Bitcoin Private?

Here is where things get really interesting. Bitcoin Private is a so-called Bitcoin fork, yet it does not derive from that code base directly. Instead, it is a fork of ZClassic. This means we are now dealing with a fork of a forked currency, which also forked from Bitcoin. It is quite confusing, as it seems Bitcoin Private has even less to do with Bitcoin than either ZCash or ZClassic do right now. Even so, the developers choose to use the term “Bitcoin” as part of their brand.

Bitcoin private has reached a new level of meta. A fork of a fork of a fork. #CNBCcrypto pic.twitter.com/QOvzv5ZSaq

— CNBC (@CNBC) March 6, 2018

Moreover, it seems Bitcoin Private caused some big market spikes for ZClassic. Its value has skyrocketed and then crashed once Bitcoin Private went live. The free airdropped tokens to ZCL holders are probably the main reason for this development. Once people got the currency they actually wanted, they sold ZCL back on the open market to crash its price altogether.  As such, ZCL is now back to its pre-fork prices.

The main question is whether or not Bitcoin Private is a threat to BTC itself. Right now, that does not appear to be the case, but things can change quickly. It also means we have another currency with “Bitcoin” in the name to deal with. For novice users, Bitcoin Private will only add more confusion and unnecessary friction. For now, we will have to wait and see how things play out in this regard. A fork of a fork of a fork is not necessarily a positive development.

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