A hardfork is not meant to fork off, but to upgrade the system. Segwit 2x expected to get full consensus and become the upgraded Bitcoin, but they didn't get it so they cancelled. A fork as Bcash has done is actually a FAILED fork, because only a tiny part of the community was supporting it and thats why the Bitcoin network rejected their nodes because it was not compatible with the majority anymore. But people who say this is the real Bitcoin are liars, because the community has never chosen for this code.
I am very bullish on Lighning Network, and reading the paper I know that NOTHING is centralized (every action is backed by smart contracts backed by the blockchain) and IMPLEMENTING KYC AND AML IS IMPOSSIBLE (standard Bcash FUD). It is being rolled out and expected to be consumer ready this year, so we have an instant, extremely cheap, scalable and super secure global payment system soon.
BTW the vision of the white paper doesn't matter, you think the first creators of the internet saw video streaming, virtual reality ect as a use case of the internet? So the recent internet is shit because it doesn't fit the original vision?
I know now the purpose of a hardfork has changed, today it is used as a kind of an ICO whereby the new created altcoin gets a lot of attention, can profit from the Bitcoin brand and get distributed under many people.
It's certainly a polarizing topic, isn't it?
I'm fine with Bitcoin being whatever it will evolve into.
Right now my favorite description of what it is this: "the reserve currency for other cryptos." - But to say the original vision doesn't matter, doesn't make much sense either. The internet analogy doesn't fit, because today's internet is undeniably better than the original vision. Is today's Bitcoin better than the original idea behind it? The answer is subjective, but the demand for a decentralized currency is real.
When one transaction can cost up to tens of dollars I can't help but think is this what Satoshi wanted? Is there a consensus for bitcoin being too expensive to use? Clearly not, no matter how much censorship happens under Theymos to make everything look just fine. Competition is good for everyone and the best money will be used.
Look. I hope you do really well with your coin and I'm looking forward to Lightning finally getting implemented, which would at least make the old network a viable payment method again in some sense.
But if you think the whitepaper and the fundamentals laid out there - that define Bitcoin - are irrelevant, so is your use of the name.