The Bitcoin forks seem to be never-ending, with the latest news coming from the Bitcointalk forum suggesting that Bitcoin Silver is well on its way and will occur in December.
This comes less than one day after Bitcoin Gold forked from the BTC blockchain as more cryptocurrency exchanges are dropping support for SegWit2x.
So what exactly is the purpose of Bitcoin Silver? Well, the developers have stated the following...
"The purpose of Bitcoin Silver is to make Bitcoin mining decentralized again. Satoshi Nakamoto’s idealistic vision of “one CPU one vote” has been superseded by a reality where the manufacture and distribution of mining equipment has become dominated by a very small number of entities, some of which have engaged in abusive practices against individual miners and the Bitcoin network as a whole. By changing Bitcoin’s proof-of-work algorithm from SHA256 to Equihash, all of the specialized SHA256 mining equipment will be obsolete for mining the Bitcoin Silver blockchain. Thus, Bitcoin Silver will provide an opportunity for countless new people around the world to participate in the mining process with widely-available consumer hardware that is manufactured and distributed by reputable mainstream corporations. A more decentralized, democratic mining infrastructure is more resilient and more in line with Satoshi’s original vision."
If you're wondering how you can get hold of it, the Bitcoin Silver (BTSI) initial coin distribution will be the same as Bitcoin Cash. All holders of Bitcoin who possess BTC private keys in December will receive Bitcoin Silver at the rate of 1BTC = 1BTSI
Bitcoin dropped by approximately eight percent following uncertainty surrounding the Bitcoin Gold fork. Coinbase also made a U-turn, choosing not to support the latest BTC variation. They released the following statement:
"The Bitcoin Gold fork occurred on October 23rd. Information about this fork has been limited and there are concerns about its security and stability. As a result, we do not believe it is safe to allow support for Bitcoin Gold at this time. If the blockchain proves to be secure and valuable, Coinbase may choose to support it."
