This post is to give you a non technical view of the recent news of possibility of ‘hard fork’ in bitcoin.Hard fork, Bitcoin Core, Bitcoin Unlimited, 2 bitcoins…we are sure you are concerned.In spite of understanding this technology deeply, we struggle to keep ourselves updated so we can sympathize how confusing this news must be to bitcoin and Zebpay users.First, the bad news.All that you have read about hard fork is true.It is a genuine concern for everyone involved in this technology.I guess it is a good reminder that anything which has the potential of high reward always comes with high risk.Now for some assurance.Although the chance of a hard fork is higher than it has ever been before, we are optimistic that it will not happen.In the event of a hard fork, Zebpay is technically equipped to handle it as well as any other global exchange.We will act the way global bitcoin exchanges act, in the best interest of our users.Without going into technical jargon, what do we suggest you do?The above advice stands irrespective of the hard fork issue.

We made Zebpay wallet for regular users who do not want to bother with safely storing the private keys of their bitcoins because if you lose them, you lose your bitcoins.So what about the price?Wish we knew :).Our guess is as good as yours, yesterday, today and tomorrow.For regular users, you can stop reading.However, if you want some technical jargon, continue.We have started working on supporting alt coins (that is, other crypto currencies besides bitcoin or different versions of bitcoin).So if required and if technically feasible, we will be able to support both versions of bitcoin in future.If a hard fork happens, we shall suspend buy / sell operations on Zebpay.We will also not allow you to deposit or withdraw your bitcoins.This could be for a period of 1 week or more.All global exchanges will do this.This is to protect your bitcoins.We will keep monitoring the situation for technical risks.Since the hard fork will happen in an unplanned way, we reserve the right to do the above without any prior notice.Once the situation has settled, we shall resume normal operations.Which bitcoin will we supportThe current version of bitcoin supported worldwide is Bitcoin Core.

Supporting a new coin or protocol requires testing and preparation.We may provide support for:We reserve the right to decide this.All this depends on market conditions.We will keep our users updated as we have more information on this.If you wish to control this decision, you should withdraw bitcoins from your Zebpay app to a wallet as suggested above.It is our responsibility to warn our users of potential risks.We don’t think there is anything to panic.We wish to assure you that we will make the best decision on behalf of our users.dogecoin value miningPicture this: A thief steals millions of dollars by hacking into an investment fund.bitcoin first difficultyWhat if you could just hit the undo button and get that money back?bitcoin meetup la

That was the dilemma that the creators of Ethereum, an upstart digital currency platform, recently faced.Founded in 2015 by a group of researchers led by Russian-Canadian Vitalik Buterin — then only 19 years old — its currency, ether, is the second-most valuable digital currency after bitcoin.But the currency suffered a blow recently after a hacker siphoned $64 million worth of ether from investors.In the wake of the hack, Buterin decided to turn back the clock through a software update and reset the entire system to its previous state — i.e., before the hack.bitcoin dojThe reset created a so-called hard fork, which split Ethereum into two parallel systems.wer nimmt bitcoinButerin assumed most users would move to the reset platform, but the fork proved divisive and a small group of users continued using the old system, dubbing it Ethereum Classic and arguing Buterin had no right to reset the platform.caida precio bitcoin

That has confused cryptocurrency investors and cast a pall over the future of Ethereum.It also opened up a rift between the currency's creators, who were the ones to alter the code and render the stolen currency null and void, and dissenters who argued against any intervention — even in the face of an Ocean's Eleven-style heist.While bitcoin is the best-known cryptocurrency, there are, in fact, hundreds of digital, decentralized payment systems that issue and trade digital currencies online.bitcoin fork newsEach operates on a blockchain, a digital ledger that keeps track of all transactions in transparent, peer-to-peer fashion.bitcoin pago facilWhile bitcoin did away with paper currency and a central banking authority, more complex transactions, such as setting up regular coupon payments on a bond, might still require the assistance of a lawyer or other third party.bitcoin pool source code

Ethereum eliminates this need by incorporating code that allows transactions to occur through so-called smart contracts, which take automatic effect once mutually agreed-upon conditions have been met.Buterin co-founded the digital currency platform Ethereum in 2015.(John Phillips/Getty Images for TechCrunch) "An auction might automatically transfer deeds of ownership to the highest bidder after a certain time has elapsed, or a father's contract might automatically send his son a set amount of money every year on his birthday," explains Business Insider's Rob Price.​Like bitcoin, ether has grown in popularity beyond internet discussion boards and small tech start-ups.Technology and financial companies from Microsoft to Deloitte have taken an interest in it."Something that was founded by a 19-year-old university dropout in Toronto, Canada, leveraging the resources of developers all over the world, turned into this $1-billion platform," said Alex Tapscott, tech writer and co-author of the book Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World.

​But before long, the digital currency fell victim to an all-too-human problem: theft.In April, a group of Ethereum users launched what is known as a decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAO, essentially a digital venture capital firm powered by ether.DAO members were supposed to vote on future Ethereum-related projects.The DAO raised more than $160 million worth of ether from about 11,000 investors.Some have called it the biggest crowdfunding project ever.Ether units are mined using high-powered computers, much like these computers mining bitcoins in the Bitmain mining farm near Keflavik, Iceland.(Jemima Kelly/Reuters) But on June 17, before anyone could do anything with the DAO, someone found a vulnerability in the DAO's code (much like finding a legal loophole in a sloppily written real-world contract), and siphoned 3.6 million ether from the fund.Ether's value tanked from a high of $27.60 to $18 immediately after the hack.It has since dropped further to $14.The total value stolen, depending on whether you calculate it before or after the hack, ranges from $64 million to $101 million.

Ethereum's creators weren't directly responsible for the DAO, but since the amount stolen from it represented 15 per cent of all ether in circulation, they locked the stolen funds in a "child DAO" — a sort of digital escrow — preventing the thief from cashing out.Buterin and his team carried out the hard fork in the blockchain, rolling back the system to a day before the DAO was formed and returning the stolen ether to the original owners.The thief was essentially left with ether unrecognized by the larger community."Anything to do with the DAO was reverted," Anthony Di Iorio, a co-founder of Ethereum and CEO of Decentral, a Toronto-based blockchain company and bitcoin dispensary, told CBC News."The contract was changed so that people could get their funds out."The hard fork was completed on July 20, but to some users, the move was akin to censorship.Instead of using the post-fork currency, a small but vocal minority kept using the old one, which currently trades for about $2.

​To these adherents, "code is law," Di Iorio said.They believe smart contracts should be immutable — even if the intent of changing the code was to restore millions of stolen ether to the rightful owners.Blockchain is the technology behind cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ether and hundreds of other smaller offshoots and alternative currencies.(BTC Bitcoin/Flickr/Creative Commons) Tapscott calls that aversion to intervention of any kind — even by the platform's own creators — "very naive.""They confuse governance with government, and governance of any kind with authoritarianism," he said."There are lots of global resources out there that aren't owned or controlled by anyone that have complex governance structures — like the internet."Tapscott says the co-existence of two Ethereum chains "causes confusion as to which is the 'real' Ethereum, which is bad for investor and developer confidence.""'The more the merrier' is a fine philosophy for ideologues and traders, but for people who actually want to run or build smart contracts, two chains are a mess," investor Jacob Eliosoff told cryptocurrency news site Coindesk.