Just when you thought it was safe and the relief rally was on, here comes the fork! Are you ready for mass panic in prices?
The new forked coin, called "bitcoin cash" calls for an 8 fold increase in the block size limit on August 1 (yes, in a matter of days). The idea is to make bitcoin as quick and easy to use as cash. Here is a link to the page: https://www.bitcoincash.org
Will this actually happen? It certainly appears like it will-so much so that one exchange has already started listing bitcoin cash futures (currently valued at $409.77 on coinmarketcap.com).
It appears as though anyone who owns bitcoin will automatically be allocated coins on both networks (traditional bitcoin and the new bitcoin cash) provided that they control their private keys. Users who hold their coins on exchanges like coinbase may only get the traditional bitcoin.
It will be interesting to see if the market predictably loses its mind and bitcoin's price dives because of the confusion (even though you are actually getting both coins after august 1).
The market will likely be concerned with the confusion for the average customer and the market's perception of bitcoin as a stable and predictable store of value. They will also no doubt be concerned about the possibility of yet another hard fork in november.
The bitcoin cash fork appears to be the fork that John McAfee famously predicted would soar in price or he would eat his own privates. However, that "reasoned and modest" comment may not be enough to calm the markets.
Until bitcoin fixes its governance model this will likely be an ongoing problem. However, its unclear how they could fix their governance model.