The title for this post is a result of how I've been explaining to my friends the ongoing situation in the Bitcoin universe: Game of Thrones meets The Matrix. We even have a NEO in the mix. And just as the death of Ned Stark set off a chain of ongoing unfolding events, we are experiencing the same in our revolutionary corner of the digital realm.
Bitcoin is dead
With the August 1 hard fork to create Bitcoin Cash and the activation of SegWit on the original blockchain, we are now left with two new coins, neither of which is identical to the original. It now becomes important to detach oneself emotionally from the name of Bitcoin and take a clean look at each of these two coins.
The cryptosphere is now entirely made up of "alt-coins"
Believe it or not. Those are the facts. Now, what will you choose to do with this information? With all of the hype surrounding the current meteoric rise in price of Bitcoin Segwit, it is understandable that you may have missed this information. And the truth is, there are corporate forces at hand that are attempting a takeover of the Bitcoin name through the activation of SegWit and numerous disinformation and censorship campaigns. But we the people are smarter than that and we owe a lot to the uncensorability of Steemit as a channel for spreading the truth. Thanks to content creators like 
Ideology versus Profitability
You may argue that these two are incompatible in this discussion. And, they were for the first couple of weeks since August 1. But now we have reached the point of "profit parity," where it has actually become more profitable to mine Bitcoin Cash. This is thanks to an Emergency Difficulty Adjustment that Bitcoin Cash development teams wrote into the protocol, in anticipation of very few miners initially leaving the Bitcoin Segwit chain in order to mine Bitcoin Cash. We have now crossed that threshold and for those miners who strongly believe in Satoshi's original vision AND are out to make some money, the choice to mine Bitcoin Cash is now crystal clear.
The Chain Death Spiral
Bitcoin Segwit does not have any recourse to deal with an exodus of miners to Bitcoin Cash. The Bitcoin Segwit mempool, which is the aggregate of unconfirmed transactions, is increasing steadily.
As more miners switch to the profitable coin, the Bitcoin Segwit will become increasingly bogged down and may never reach its next scheduled difficulty adjustment, which would provide much sorely needed relief. If this happens, the Bitcoin Segwit chain will eventually cease to exist as everyone shifts to Bitcoin Cash.
Nothing is Guaranteed
If you don't know that by now, you might consider adopting it as your mantra in the space of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. You must look beyond the surface and the hype. I am not a professional anything. I farm, I play music, I parent, I love and I create. This is my take on what is going down based on the research that I have done. Please do your own and keep an open mind and remember that it is up to us to deliver on the promise of this technology. Other forces can, will, and are trying to co-opt this technology for their own personal gain. It is up to us to expose the truth and deliver Satoshi's vision.
