Chapter 3. Forks and Altchains
Cryptocurrencies are still very much in a research and development stage, and developers have been trying for years to create another Bitcoin—a popular cryptocurrency network with a strong community behind it.
Whether because of scalability, functionality, or speculation, there have been a number of proposals for forking (more on this soon) the Bitcoin code into a new cryptocurrency with similar properties. Some of these ideas are quite novel, while others are simply a play to engineer value.
Bitcoin Improvement Proposals
Why not just change Bitcoin itself? It’s not that easy. There is a governance process that must be followed to update the Bitcoin protocol.
This is typical of software products: there is usually an internal process to identify continuous improvement opportunities. The process takes into account criteria such as who owns the product and who has a final say in its development, and determines when new features should be added.
Bitcoin Core is open source—the client software is open to everyone and is intended to be owned and managed by the Bitcoin community. Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs) are the community’s process to continuously manage and update the Bitcoin Core code. Instead of decisions being made by a designated committee or team, they are made by the entire community.
Anyone from the community who has an idea for improving Bitcoin can propose a new BIP. They must then champion the BIP to get consensus from the community ...
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