As if the Bitcoin hard fork situation weren’t complicated enough, it seems that yet another contender has entered the ring. UnitedBitcoin is perhaps one of the more ironic names, given the fact that the community is so divided on several topics. It is an interesting creation, although it remains to be seen whether or not there will be any major interest in this project. The currency will be known across exchanges as UBTC, assuming anyone even supports it.
UnitedBitcoin Seems to be Another Joke
The world genuinely doesn’t need more Bitcoin hard forks which offer nothing new or interesting. Cloning existing code and slapping a different name on it will not fly in the cryptocurrency world; that much is evident. UnitedBitcoin will face an uphill battle in this regard, even though the team claims to introduce some noteworthy improvements on the actual Bitcoin. It is a story we have heard dozens of times in the past, yet there is hardly any truth to these claims.
As one would expect, UnitedBitcoin will utilize proof-of-work with the same SHA-256 algorithm as Bitcoin. It will have a much lower mining difficulty, though, which may attract some miners in the coming weeks. It also has the same volume, block time, and reward halving schedule as Bitcoin itself. In these regards, there is absolutely nothing about UnitedBitcoin that will be of great interest to early adopters. The currency will not replace the Bitcoin we know and love by any means.
What is different compared to Bitcoin is that UnitedBitcoin combines Segregated Witness and an 8MB block size. We have seen other upcoming Bitcoin hard forks use a similar strategy, though, which only makes UnitedBitcoin even less unique. The addition of smart contract capabilities and support for the Lightning Network in the future are commendable. However, all of that is coming to Bitcoin itself as well, which means UBTC will always remain a second or third choice in this regard.
The team claims its smart contract implementation is something the world has never seen before. Whether or not that is even remotely true remains to be determined, though. It is good to see smart contracts getting so much attention, but there are still plenty of issues associated with this technology in its current form. It is highly doubtful UnitedBitcoin will make an impact in this regard, but we will find out for sure soon enough, as the hard fork goes into effect on December 12.
Whether or not anyone will care about UnitedBitcoin also remains to be determined. There is very little reason to get excited about this new currency, other than for the fact that it will be another free airdrop to existing Bitcoin holders. However, with no exchanges or wallets officially supporting this fork as of yet, claiming one’s currency may prove a challenge, to say the very least. It also appears the team will distribute the non-issued UBTC supply to other entities in the ecosystem, including Ethereum, QTUM, Litecoin, HSR, and a few other major chains. That’s a remarkable decision, though one that makes very little sense at this point in time.
As it happens, this project also has one of the more annoying websites out there, as its background music quickly got on our nerves. It is highly doubtful this new forked currency will make any sort of impact, let alone leave a mark on the cryptocurrency scene as a whole. This game of issuing Bitcoin clones has got to stop sooner or later, as it is getting pretty ridiculous.
