United States
United Kingdom
The number of altcoins created by forking Bitcoin network in December will certainly confuse newcomers. Some more forks are scheduled for January as well. Overall, by the end of January, the crypto market could be flooded with altcoins created by forking Bitcoin network.
These include Bitcoin Uranium, and Bitcoin God, Super Bitcoin, Bitcoin Platinum, Bitcoin Cash Plus, Bitcoin Silver, Bitcoin Hot, and Lightning Bitcoin.
Neutral observers have voiced their concerns about several of these forked coins. However, an altcoin, which is planned to be created by forking the Bitcoin network on January 15 is worth a second look.
The altcoin we are referring here is Bitcoin Flash (BTF). It offers the powerful features of Dash, while retaining the basic aspects of Bitcoin. As you might know, Bitcoin transaction propagates quickly through its network. However, the transaction is said to be valid only after it gets mined into the block. Notably, the software auto-adjusts itself to maintain an interval of 10 minutes, on an average, between the blocks. That results in a waiting period of 10-30 minutes for a Bitcoin transaction to be confirmed. The delays make it impossible to use in day-to-day life.
Dash coin solved the issue of delay by creating a new technology named InstantX. The modified Bitcoin code locks the transaction outputs and avoids a double spend. To achieve this property, Dash incentivized people to run thousands of master nodes. To put it simpler, the consensus is locked to earn coins in return for the service provided. That resulted in instant confirmations for people using Dash coins. The trustless, decentralized structure has not faced any issues so far.
Despite the instant confirmation feature, Dash has not garnered a bigger share of the market. Bitcoin is always considered to be the leader and that continues to overshadow Dash. The new fork resulting in the creation of Bitcoin Flash is basically a rebranding of Dash. The fork is planned at block 502502, on January 5, 2018.
Those who do not possess mining equipment will be able to earn Bitcoin Flash (BTF) by running masternodes. To run a masternode, an operator must possess 1,000 BTF (acts as collateral & similar to proof of stake). Since BTF is expected to trade at a lower cost in exchanges, compared to Bitcoin, interested people who wish to operate masternodes will be able to acquire the necessary BTF coins without any difficulty. Since transactions are confirmed instantaneously, it may soon be used in retail stores as well.
One important thing to note is that Bitcoin Flash has a code, which is ready to be used. That differentiates it with other altcoins, such as Bitcoin Cash, created by Bitcoin forking.
