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Bitcoin Fork Watch: News & Guides for the Coming Bitcoin Cash Split

An unknown number of bitcoin users and miners have split off from the main network and are now attempting to start a new blockchain called Bitcoin Cash.
At press time, it seems the effort may be struggling to attract miners, as the bitcoin blockchain is now five blocks ahead of the Bitcoin Cash blockchain, which has yet to produce a block and create a new cryptocurrency. The development has set off a wave of new commentary.
“It's likely going to take at least several hours,” tweeted BitGo engineer Jameson Lopp.
Bloq CEO Jeff Garzik, who's backing a rival scaling proposal mentioned that since Bitcoin Cash has about 1% of the computing power that the main bitcoin network has, it might even take 24 hours to mine a new block.
The comments add notable context to the current conversation on whether the effort to fork the bitcoin blockchain should be considered a success – or if it will even occur at all.
The bitcoin protocol could see its first major fork on August 1.
That's when, if miners stand by their word, the network will see the creation of Bitcoin Cash – a new cryptocurrency backed by a version of the blockchain that boasts a unique technical roadmap.
Not only will Bitcoin Cash tweak the protocol to increase the block size, but it will reject code proposed by bitcoin's developers that would seek to improve scalability and reduce the necessity of this metric in achieving capacity in the future.
But while at odds with the businesses and developers that have largely embraced the Segwit2x proposal (or SegWit itself), supporters have high expectations for the project, which they've largely cloaked in terminology that suggests it will mark a return to the project's roots.
"Ninety years ago, the same day, there was a revolution in China. Now today we have another revolution," said one excited supporter in a project WeChat group.
Said another:
"The dream of a peer-to-peer digital cash for all the people restarts in a few hours."
Lofty ambitions aside, the bitcoin fork could end up impacting users and businesses, increasing market volatilityand leading to consumer and media confusion.

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