Without being affected by their names, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Diamond, Bitcoin Private, and others are not the same thing as Bitcoin. They’re based on Bitcoin, and are carry by on its name, but they’re different coins. They are worth however much people value them.
Bitcoin and all its forks are priced by the market
Bitcoin Cash has low fees and quick transaction times. Bitcoin Cash clasp a larger block size, which means the network can support more transactions. It’s currently the most valuable Bitcoin hard fork. Bitcoin Cash is the fourth most valuable coin after (Bitcoin), (Ethereum), and (Ripple) as of April 16, 2018
Bitcoin Gold gear another problem the increasing centralization of Bitcoin mining that requires specialized hardware and makes it impossible for the average person to mine.
Bitcoin Diamond mixed together a number of features to create a “better Bitcoin,” including Segwit and the Lightning network (from Bitcoin), larger block sizes (from Bitcoin Cash), and a GPU-optimized mining algorithm (similar to Bitcoin Gold). It also promises some privacy by encrypting the values of each transaction. People can’t see how much currency is being sent in any given transaction by scanning the public blockchain. Bitcoin Diamond is the 16th most valuable coin and second most valuable Bitcoin hard fork and as of April 16, 2018, beating Bitcoin Gold.The Bitcoin Diamond fork took place on November 24, 2017.
Bitcoin Private is a hard fork of Bitcoin, but it’s also a merge with the Zclassic. At the time of its hardfork if you had 10 Bitcoin and 10 Zclassic, you ended up with 20 Bitcoin Private as well. BTCP is the 37th most valuable coin and fourth most valuable Bitcoin hard fork as of April 16, 2018. The Bitcoin Private fork took place on February 28, 2018
One of the features that make Bitcoin attractive is the limited number of coins. I remember thinking, "there will be only 21 million Bitcoins in the world, it would be good if I had a few of them." However, it's not the case today. 40 cryptocurrencies in the market start with the name bitcoin. Five of them are among the top 100 by total market value among cryptocurrencies. The screenshot below from https://coinranking.com/ shows the name, price and total market values of these cryptocurrencies.
In the blockchain world, a hard fork is created when developers use the core code as the basis of their projects by changing it. Other projects with names such as Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold and Bitcoin Diamond are the hard forks of Bitcoin. These cryptocurrencies were created by those who did not accept design decisions in the Bitcoin project. These hard forks of Bitcoin are currencies based on the Bitcoin code, but they are not Bitcoin. (Anyone can argue that hence they are not original, they are better versions of Bitcoin)
There are criticisms that these alt-coins have been issued to take advantage of the popularity of Bitcoin's name. I agree with these criticisms, creating a Bitcoin inflation seem not right for me.
Those who support Bitcoin hard forks argue that these alt-coins are developing Bitcoin. They say that the experience gained in these alt-coins and the new investors who have been pulled into the system support Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
Bitcoin Cash is crypto designed for low price transfers and low transaction time. Bitcoin Cash has a larger block size, which means that the network can support more operations. While the median fee for Bitcoin transfers is 0.15 USD, Bitcoin Cash median transfer fee is 0.002 USD. You can access the historical development of median transfer fees via the link below.
https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/median_transaction_fee-btc-bch-btg.html#3m
Bitcoin Cash, emerging on August 1, 2017, is the fourth most valuable cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple as of August 5, 2018.
Bitcoin Cash is now on the market with 21 million coin limit, like Bitcoin. There are still 17,28 million of them in circulation. Official website: https://www.bitcoincash.org/
Bitcoin Gold (BTG)
Bitcoin Gold addresses another problem of Bitcoin: the growing centralization of Bitcoin mining, which has become impossible for the average people. Specialized hardware, known as application-specific integrated circuits (Asics), is required for profitable mining. And mining companies, thanks to their large size, are more potent on the network than necessary.
Bitcoin Gold has made the network more decentralized by allowing the average people with robust graphics processors (GPUs) to mine Bitcoin on their computers.
Released on November 12, 2017, Bitcoin Gold is 29. valuable cryptocurrency today.
Bitcoin Gold is on the market with 21 million coin limit like Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. There are still 17,16 million of them in circulation. Official website: https://bitcoingold.org/
Bitcoin Diamond (BCD)
Bitcoin Diamond combines many features, such as larger block size, decentralized mining, to create a better Bitcoin. It also offers more privacy by encrypting the values of each process.
Released on November 24, 2017, Bitcoin Diamond is still 41st the most valuable crypto.
BCD has an upper limit of 210 million coins. The number of 153,76 million is still on the market. Official website:http://www.btcd.io/#/
The following table comparing the bitcoin hard forks can help you see the big picture.
Segwit2x(B2X), which has similar technical features with other bitcoin hard forks. It is 816th in the crypto market. Its name suggests they didn't prefer to take advantage of the magic "Bitcoin" word.
Private Bitcoin (BTCP)
Bitcoin, allows people to view the actions on the blockchain. Bitcoin private focuses on privacy. Payments are posted in a public blockchain, but data such as the sender, receiver, and transaction value are hidden.
It was released on 28 February 2018. Private Bitcoin is 74. most valuable crypto.
Official website:https://btcprivate.org/
Conclusion
Bitcoin has created a revolution in finance by eliminating traditional mediators.
It has brought significant advantages, such as;
Possibility to send money 24/7 anywhere in the world,
Not subject to inflation like fiat currencies,
Eliminating the obligation to trust banks,
Wallet owners do not have to expose their identity,
International transfers at low rates
Today, some other alt-coins can also provide the advantages of the Bitcoin and its hard forks. Besides, many coins offer additional benefits. Although Bitcoin's brand value is critical, I think that coins with better technical infrastructure will stand out in competition in the long run.
I'm neither a cryptocurrency nor an investment expert. This article should be considered as an amateur investor's attempt to share what he has learned about a group of cryptocurrencies.
Thanks for reading.