Unless you are a Bitcoin enthusiast, and at the same time has been living under a rock for the past year, you are aware of the heated discussion in the community, surrounding scaling. More specifically, increasing transaction throughput by allowing larger blocks to be mined.
As explained in an article by Bitcoin Magazine titled 'Countdown to SegWit: These Are the Dates to Keep an Eye On', we can end up with not only two different Bitcoins if there is a chain split, but perhaps four or even five types of Bitcoin.
If there is a chain split, what is that going to do to the price of bitcoin? Well, if we all of a sudden have all these different versions of bitcoin, a lot of the investors supplying hot money currently flowing into the currency will get cold feet, and invest elsewhere if there is too much perceived uncertainty.
What about the rest of the cryptocurrency ecosystem? The truth is, the confidence in the crypto market as a whole, at least for now hinges on the confidence in Bitcoin. In other words, if the Bitcoin price declines drastically, we'll see the same with Ethereum, Litecoin and pretty much every other cryptocurrency out there.
In case the the price of Bitcoin plummets, does that mean it's all over? Well, not really. In the long term, many of these decentralized systems do offer real value to the market, and will at some point recover. Take the Mt. Gox crash as an example, where Bitcoin fell from more than $1,000 down to $200. However, it has recovered since then, seeing an all time high greater than the previous bull market. The same is likely to happen again, with Bitcoin, and/or with many of the other cryptos out there.
So fear not, if the the cryptocurrency market ends up in flames for a while, at least you can buy cheap, and see much better gains than you otherwise would. A great decline can become your best investment opportunity.