Blockchain explorer website blockexplorer.com is raising the stakes in the battle between Bitcoin and its recent big-block fork, Bitcoin Cash.
The site announced today that they would be putting their main focus on Bitcoin Cash, and will be going so far as to use the “Bitcoin” name to describe it- and will refer to the original Bitcoin as “Bitcoin Legacy” going forward. The site defends this decision by explaining in their announcement that “The Blockstream fork of Bitcoin diverges so radically from the ideas presented in the Bitcoin white paper, that it is an evolutionary dead end.”
Supporters of Bitcoin Cash may applaud this move, and say things like “Bitcoin Cash is Bitcoin” and “It’s time to move on” – but this has the potential to cause a lot of confusion, especially for new users- even more so than the Bitcoin.com wallet revision. People who send a Bitcoin transaction and think it’s been confirmed and is now on the blockchain may wonder what happened to it when they check the “Bitcoin” explorer and don’t see it. Even worse, they could end up buying coins from the site then end up feeling frustrated and disillusioned when they try to send their “Bitcoin” to another wallet and it doesn’t work. To the people running the site this probably seems like a great idea and the right thing to do- but they could be playing with fire.
