Bitcoin's future is threatened by rival, under 'hard fork' crisis

The web-based cryptocurrency's future hangs on a brink as its developers are debating whether or not to tweak the software to give way to more and speedy transactions, giving birth to a crisis called 'hard fork'.

According to Reuters, Bitcoin lead developers Gavin Andresen and Mike Hearn have been locking heads and have looked on improving the blocks from its 1 megabyte capacity to turn it into 8 megabyte so it can process 24 transactions per second.

Its new version, which will be called Bitcoin XT, however, would still be a fraction of what the VISA card can perform what with its 20,000 transactions per second. But the developers are looking to upgrade it every year so its growth can continue.

Naturally, a major currency like Bitcoin should be able to process more transactions per second. However, the problem lies on whether or not its miners will support Bitcoin XT. The upgrade requires more blocks by 75% to be developed. With that comes the term 'hard fork'. This means a split of software will be implemented, which also means crisis. Bitcoin XT protocol was already released in a small scale and it has drawn the anger of many.

Satoshi Nakamoto, the elusive Bitcoin creator, has not envisioned this protocol for Bitcoin. He believes that his creation should evolve but not in a forced way as the hard fork would do. He believes that if Bitcoin XT will be used that way, then it will be a failure because it will ruin the essence of what it was created for: social consensus and harmonized component.

But for people who are confused as to what Bitcoin is, and got furthermore confused with the 'crisis' going on around it, as Martin Tiller from a Nasdaq.com article puts it, people should have nothing to worry about as everything that goes on with it is a healthy disagreement that "one can expect in a democratized system."

In other words, this feared rivalry is nothing but an update of the old Bitcoin, a 'necessary' protocol that is hotly debated between the parties of Andresen and Hearn and other people who are truly against Bitcoin XT. The rivalry is nothing but the two versions of the same thing, hence the term fork. But the existence of this two versions forces people to choose one over the other. The chosen one is the winner and the default version.