Bitcoin Smart
Bitcoin Smart(BCS) is a hard fork of Bitcoin on block height 505050.With integration of smart-contract system, new features such as token issuance will be available and on-chain performance will no longer be an issue.
Date : 01/22/2018
Block: 505050
Premine: None
Bitcoin Interest
Bitcoin Interest ("BCI") is a frictionless global payment system focusing on three key areas Technology, Community, and Savings. Our payment system has a new integrated savings technology that allows our users to park their coins and earn interest.
Date : 01/22/2018
Block: 505083
Premine: 1,000,000
Bitcoin Private
Bitcoin private is a hard fork that will occur on both Zclassic and Bitcoin network. The distribution ratio will be 1:1 for both BTC and ZCL. The aim of ZCL is to provide privacy to users using zk-snarks. Exact fork date has yet to be announced.
Date : 04/18/2019
Block: 999999
Premine: None
Upcoming Dates List Calendar for Bitcoin Hard Forks
On this website you can see upcoming list of all bitcoin hard forks that have yet to occur. We include the dates and list of bitcoin forks. If any info is missing or is perhaps incorrect, make sure to contact us so we can update it.
What is a Hard Fork?
Hard fork in blockchain technology is a radical change to the underlying protocol. A hard fork is a change to the protocol that makes previously invalid blocks and/or transactions valid. All users need to upgrade to the compatible version of the protocol. In case that does not happen and some nodes/users continue to validate by the old rules, and some users by the new rules, a so called Hard-fork(HF) will occur which means the network will be split in 2 chains as demonstrated on the picture below. New and old chain share the same transaction history till the block where the change of rules has occured. After that the chains are incompatitible and are running independently.
Are Bitcoin forks a scamm?
Technically the newly created fork is legitimate and you get the free coins. However these days there seem to be so many Hard forks, that are nothing, but a spin-off and the creators of the fork usually include a premine(grant themselves coins that did not exist prior to the fork) from which they can make a lot of money.
Regardless of that, if you held the Bitcoin you get the coins for free and can sell them on the exchange or HODL.
Bitcoin Hard Forks as IFO - Initial Fork Offering
Bitcoin Hard Forks that include a premine(artificially created coins that are allocated to the developers address) are sometimes seen as an IFO - initial fork offering and seems to be getting more and more popular in countries like China, where the ICOs have been banned and the Bitcoin IFO - initial fork offering can be seen as a way to raise money.
Should you be buying Bitcoin forks
Personally i do not see any value in majority of those newly created forks that are nothing else but copycats and quick way to raise A LOT of money with premined coins by the developers. I think they hold very little to no utility and are more than not pointless. The only purpose of it seems to be trading.
How do i claim Coins of a new Hard-forked Bitcoin
In order to claim your coins, you need to be holding private keys to your Bitcoin wallet. If you are using an exchange, they are the ones actually possessing your private keys and actual ownership of the coins. Some exchanges do credit the newly created coins, but not all of them.
It is recommended to send your bitcoins to a new wallet first, as your private key is the same on all forks. So let's say you download a wallet for newly created Bitcoin fork, but it's malicious and they steal your private keys- then they also have ownership over the real Bitcoin. So for safety reasons it's always better to send your Bitcoins to another wallet and then export the old private key to the wallet supporting newly created fork of Bitcoin. Always do due dilligence - when it comes to money, there will be scammers preying on you all the time.