It happened first with Bitcoin Cash. With a lot of fuss and impressive marketing budgets, a part of the Bitcoin network switched to a new token, with an almost identical name and with claims that "this is the real Bitcoin", "this is Satoshi's true vision", etc, etc. In that team, an ASIC mining producer (I think you know the name, I won't get into details).
Yesterday, the same thing happened to Monero, only this time we're seeing not one alternative project, but 4. The technical details about Monero hardfork are well explained in the above article, I won't replay them.
The common theme in both hardforks is the presence (or the pressure?) of an ASIC manufacturer (yes, the one which will not be named in this article).
To be honest, I always thought it was just a question of time until the egalitarian geeky wet dream of a transparent, decentralized ledger will be blown away by good ol' human greed. You see, the blockchain can only store transactions and synchronize data and, perhaps, solve complicated, useless mathematical problems, but it can't fix humans.
Only humans can fix themselves.
And some humans have no interest whatsoever in fixing themselves, because, crushed by their enormous egos, they are actually enjoying this all pervasive greed which ruins everything around.
The only reason for Bitcoin Cash and Monero hardforks is greed. These hardforks are advertised as a step towards "decentralization", but in fact they are both an infection of centralization. Instead of giving everyone a say in the system, they are tilting the balance, with technological shortcuts, so the profits will start flowing more on one side. This is centralization. This is concentrating the power in the hands of a few.
And if you look back in history, this never ended up well.
A big part of the problem is that the PoW algorithm is way too vulnerable to human greed. The temptation of building specialized mining machines is simply too big to resist.
For what is worth, I don't think PoS, or DPoS, or BFT are immune to that, but they seem to be a bit more resilient than PoW. But for now, PoW tokens are dominating the cryptocurrency markets, so the stake is high. There is a big pie to be sliced, and big sharks love this kind of pie.
The first consequence of these hardforks will probably be increased confusion. There is already a lot of that surrounding Bitcoin, now we're gonna have even more of it, around Monero too.
The second consequence will be polarization. There will be "egalitarianists" - those who are not supporting ASICs, like Monero devs, who pledged to hardfork every six month specifically to make Monero ASIC resistant - and there will be "hardwarianists", which will consider ASICs normal evolution in a competitive market.
The third consequence is that the overall value of PoW tokens will decrease.
From that moment on, a big part of those who are already invested in crypto will start to realize there are other ways of minting tokens, from Proof of Burn, to Proof Of Stake (or, to bring Steem into discussion, Proof of Brain).
The main risk is that, by the time people will get over PoW, the crypto market might be quite depleted by confusion and polarization.
But I might as well be wrong.
Let's wait and see.
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me 
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