I've seen lately a lot of posts about x and y wanted to fork Bitcoin for whatever reason.
And always came to my mind this old warning post from Mircea Popescu, on Jan 06, 2015.
Here is a copy of it:
Some random scammer1, pretending great import and high office in Bitcoin like all the scammers coming before him2 (all of which the hostile eye of the mainstream media, as well as the dim, unseeing eye of the mass "follower" presented as actually important, for a brief time, back in the day - and generally for pay) is going to create a "Bitcoin killer".
Unlike the MtGox coins, Aurora coins, Etherium coins, Ripple coins, Paycoins and whatever other scammy "better than Bitcoin", "Bitcoin replacement" etc peddled to date, the current scammer is brasher in his attempt (as scammers are wont to be, they call this "being innovative" on their dedicated scammer forums), and he actually claims to be seriously involved in Bitcoin development, at the behest of a fake "Bitcoin Foundation". These claims are both false, on the strength of the historical record, and both are squarely rejected by the actual Bitcoin Foundation.
What's left is the nude reality of the matter : if you, either misguided by some scammer's malice, or simply through ignorance, actually modify your Bitcoin client to accept the nonconformant transactions, the result will be that any Bitcoin you hold will be slowly (or perhaps not so slowly, depending on your use habits) replaced by worthless scam-Bitcoins, that will not be accepted by the main players in Bitcoin anymore than they'd accept something you've drawn yourself.
The fate of this fork will be exactly the fate of all attempted forks to date3 : the savvy Bitcoin holders will sell their fake-Bitcoins on the fake network, while double-spending (and thus invalidating) their sale on the actual network, thereby keeping their actual Bitcoin safe4 .
The proceeds of this "victimless"5 crime will be used to purchase more legitimate Bitcoins on the legitimate network, thus draining away value from the holders of Bitcoin fakes, into the pockets of the legitimate Bitcoin holders. Which of these two do you wish to be... well... now that you consider the matter, it's pretty obvious, right ? Certainly, not all will consider the matter, but if your morals are in their right place you will at least let them know, if you can get to them.
To make it perfectly clear : in no case will MPEx accept this fake Bitcoin, as it's not accepted any other fake Bitcoin to date, and for the exact reasons. Moreover, my budget to sink this scam exceeds the budget of everyone involved on the supporting side6. That is all.
Footnotes
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One Gavin Andresen, known principally for his costumed clown services, where he goes to various conferences dressed as this or that for the amusement of the participants. ↩
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Trendon Shavers thought he was very important, Mark Karpeles thought he was very important, Max Keiser thought he was very important, Andreas Antonopoulous thought he was very important before his untimely death, Vitalik Buterin thinks he is very important, Josh Garza thinks he is very important, the list is endless. ↩
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That all miserably failed, needless to say, to a chorus of lulzy stuff like↩
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The reverse is not possible, by the way : this scammer's fork is, as designed, forced to accept transactions on the legitimate Bitcoin network, but the legitimate network could never accept transactions based on movements on the fork. ↩
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In the sense that its only victims are the gullible idiots empowering a scammer, something you're never ever supposed to do, by the way. Note that this is not the first time when "everyone" supported a scammer, and when "the consensus" seemed to be that nonsense is now quite sensible. This did exactly nothing to alleviate the 100% loss of those involved - whose voices you do not hear precisely because that is the fate of the gullible, the scammer following crowd. ↩
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If you're curious, just do a count. ↩