Bitcoin fork watch: New digital currency takes off post-blockchain split

For the first time in the history of cryptocurrency, a new version of Bitcoin is now being mined. And it’s not as scary as some reports would have you believe.

On Tuesday, a group of miners split off from the main bitcoin blockchain—meaning they started using a new, incompatible software—creating a new cryptocurrency called Bitcoin Cash.

The blockchain split is the culmination of the years-long scaling debate within the bitcoin community as they search for a way to increase the network’s capacity from the original 1MB.

Bitcoin Cash is a project of some of SegWit2X’s original backers who have lost confidence that the proposal, which combines Bitcoin Core’s Segregated Witness and a block size increase, will implement the “2X” part and decided to take the matters into their own hands.