What eCash brings: the fourth Bitcoin hard fork

What is a hard fork

Bitcoin is open source, so anyone can copy it, modify it and run it as a new, separate network. When such a modified version “splits off” from the original blockchain at one specific block, we call it a hard fork.

In practice, this means there is one shared transaction history up to that block. From that block onwards, the history divides into two separate, mutually incompatible networks. The original network (Bitcoin) carries on unchanged. The new network (eCash) continues under its own rules, with its own name and its own token, in this case called ECX.

What matters is that a hard fork doesn’t touch the Bitcoin network itself. It isn’t a decision that changes Bitcoin as such. Someone has simply taken its code and built something new on it.

It isn’t the first Bitcoin hard fork

Similar splits have happened in Bitcoin’s history several times. The best-known examples:

• Bitcoin Cash (2017) - present price €231
• Bitcoin Gold (2017) - present price €0,25
• Bitcoin SV (2018) - present price €15

All three tokens still exist and trade, but at a far lower price and with much less significance than Bitcoin itself. They work as separate, much smaller networks. Now a new fork, eCash, is about to appear.

Why eCash is being created

The main reason for eCash is so-called Drivechains. This technology allows experiments with new privacy features and the development of applications such as prediction markets, decentralised exchanges and the like. Put simply, it adds more functionality to Bitcoin.

The community of Bitcoin developers is very conservative and doesn’t want too many other applications running on the Bitcoin protocol. So developer Paul Sztorc came up with this hard fork solution. It will then be up to the market to show how useful it is.

What the new eCash brings to Bitcoin holders

For a traditional Bitcoin holder, the hard fork brings just one thing. At a single moment (from block 964,000), you receive as many eCash tokens for free as the Bitcoin you hold. If you have 0.5 BTC, from 31 October you’ll have 0.5 ECX.

Invity will not support eCash

Invity focuses purely on Bitcoin, so we do not support the ECX token. On top of that, our custodian and our MiCA licence do not allow us to process it.

Your Bitcoin is safe

The most important point last: the hard fork has no effect on the value, security or properties of Bitcoin itself. Your Bitcoin in the Invity app stays exactly where it was throughout, unchanged.

The value of crypto assets may fluctuate and investing in crypto assets carries a risk of loss. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.