Initial Fork Offering (IFO): Six more Bitcoin forks on their way in the coming weeks of December

I’m sure you’ve heard of IPO (Initial Public Offering) for companies and ICO (Initial Coin Offering) for blockchain projects. Now, we also have what’s called an IFO (Initial Fork Offering), a means by which miners fork a blockchain and mine new coins due to political, ideological, or economic incentives, with strong enough community support.

There has been a lot of news about Bitcoin’s forks recently, the most notorious of which is Bitcoin Cash orchestrated by Jihan Wu. Additionally, there were Bitcoin Gold and Bitcoin Diamond. Here’s a post I wrote comparing Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin Gold (BTG), and Bitcoin Diamond (BCD).

In the coming weeks in December, there are actually six more forks on the Bitcoin blockchain allegedly on their way. Here are the forks in chronological order:

UPDATE: Bitcoin Platinum was debunked to be scam.

1. Bitcoin Platinum: Expected at block height 498533 (roughly Dec. 10th), Bitcoin Platinum is a Korean Bitcoin fork led by a mining pool called Woori Pool. Block time will be changed from 10 minutes to 2.5 minutes. The Equihash Proof-of-Work algorithm will be adopted, disallowing ASIC mining like Bitcoin Gold in order to decentralize mining. SegWit2x will be activated, increasing the block size to 2 MB. There is support from BTCPLT and shuzibi, according to their website. Exchanges supporting it include Korbit, UPbit, and Bithumb, according to their tweet. There will be no pre-mine.
2. Super Bitcoin: Expected at block height 498888 (roughly Dec. 12th), Super Bitcoin plans to activate smart contact features, Lightning Network, and zero-knowledge proof. Block size will be increased to 8 MB. The team is led by Ranger Shi, Li Xiao Lai, and Jia Peng Lin, according to their website.
3. Lightning Bitcoin: Expected at block height 499999 (roughly Dec. 20th), Lightning Bitcoin plans to adopt DPoS (Delegated Proof of Stake) instead of the traditional PoW (Proof of Work) as its consensus protocol. Block time will be 2 minutes instead of 10 minutes. Lightning Network, smart contract features, and zero-knowledge proof are planned to be activated. Led by a Chinese community leader Jack Zhang, it has support from CEX.io, BTCC, gate.io, and Coldlar Wallet, according to their website, which seems to be present but dead at the time of writing.
4. Bitcoin God: Expected at block height 501225 (roughly Dec. 25–29th), Bitcoin God is led by Chandler Guo, a Chinese angel investor. It plans to activate smart contract features, Lightning Network, zero-knowledge proof, and DPoS (Delegated Proof of Stake). The block size will be larger, but the website seems to lack the detail as to how large. Remarkably, it is claimed that it has support from NEO and Qtum as well as numerous exchanges like Bithumb, Bittrex, and Gemini. There will be no pre-mine.
5. Bitcoin Cash Plus: Expected at block height 501407 (roughly Dec. 30th-Jan. 2nd), Bitcoin Cash Plus offers an interesting mix between Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold. That is, the block size will be increased to 8 MB like Bitcoin Cash whereas its Proof-of-Work algorithm will be Equihash like Bitcoin Gold. The details regarding the team and supported wallets are yet to be announced, according to their website.
6. Bitcoin Uranium: Expected on Dec. 31st (block height not specified), Bitcoin Uranium plans to adopt Equihash as its Proof-of-Work algorithm similar to Bitcoin Platinum and Bitcoin Cash Plus discussed above. The block time will be 1 minute instead of 10 minutes. Block reward will be halved every 450 days, which is the half-life of Uranium. Currently, there is no information about the team or supporters. According to their forum on Bitcointalk, they are still working on their website to release more information as we approach the end of December.

Of course, no one knows how legitimate these IFOs are, so one should proceed with caution as always. Most of the forks tend to claim a lot without much detail or work backing up their claims. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how these forks will play out and more generally how fork dynamics within blockchains will play out as we continue our journey down the rabbit hole of blockchain and cryptocurrency.

About Chain Intelligence — Based in New York City, Chain Intelligence is a technical consulting group dedicated to quality blockchain research pertaining to consensus protocols, token dynamics, product architecture, and technical viability.