There are various elements that you will need to track or work out what is going on at the time of the Bitcoin Cash network split (1640UTC, November 15).
We’ll be covering the story of the fork as it happens, but here are some useful tools that will help you tomorrow (Note: The subheadings below are links to the tools).
Politics & opinion
Coin Dance has been tracking the support between the various Bitcoin Cash protocol roadmaps amongst 50 leading companies and organisations in the crypto sphere. They also provide a ‘weighted’ option that takes into account the influence and size of the various organisation they survey. This data will give you a feel of what and how many companies are backing each network protocol.
Nodes
Nodes make up a key element of the consensus mechanism for the network. A node stores a full copy of the blockchain and also abides by the various consensus rules to keep all nodes synchronised. This data will give you an overview of the number of nodes running on the network and the various differences between the node implementations.
Hashing
Coin Dance has a built monitor to see the number of blocks mined by each mining pool. This tool can be used before and after the fork to work out the relative estimated hashing power that the various hashing pools will be mining against each side of a fork.
Fork Monitor
This tool has been recently backed by Bitmex Research. It will tell you how many competing chains are currently linked to various nodes on the network. It will also tell you what chain is further ahead (in terms of block height) – use this tool after the fork happens to see what chain is ahead and if there is a potential re-org attack detected.
Block Chain Explorer
Blockchair will show a list of recently mined blocks on the BCH blockchain. For each block, you can see details of the various transactions that are included in each one. It is assumed that when exchanges start accepting deposits (based on a number of confirmations) you will be able to see these included in the blockchain. If you can spot the address linked to major exchanges you may be able to spot if whales are trying to send coins to dump the markets.
Mining Profitability
Fork.lol will give a comparison between the mining profitability that exists between the Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash blockchain. If a chain split happens you may see a DARI (Difficulty Adjusted Reward Index) appear for both sides of the fork. This will give you an indication if an economic incentive exists for sha-256 miners to jump from mining BTC to one of the Bitcoin Cash forks.
The fun one
Last but certainly not least, this Star Wars themed fork tracker from hashwars.cash gives a countdown timer to the fork, current node count for each implementation and even live USDC prices from Poloniex. Don’t forget to look out for your favourite Star Wars character!
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. We do not give advice on financial products.