There’s been some panic lately over the various “forks” of the Bitcoin network, particularly among the less tech-savvy who hear inaccurate or incomplete news on the mainstream media. It’s important to clear up some confusion, because there are more so-called “forks” coming.
First, the most important thing to know is this: there will only ever be 21 mln Bitcoin in existence. Period. End of story.
There have been and will continue to be currencies that fork from the Bitcoin network, taking with them a full snapshot of the network up until that point. Yet there’s still only one Bitcoin. Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin-anything-else, none of them have interoperability with the real Bitcoin network.
Bitcoin skeptics have been telling people that with the Bitcoin Cash fork, there will now be 42 mln Bitcoin in existence. It won’t be long before they start claiming that with the upcoming Bitcoin Gold fork, there will ultimately be 63 mln coins in existence. This is complete falsehood.