Exchanges Accused of Selling 'Fake Bitcoins' After Bitcoin Hard Fork

Bitcoin Knots developer Luke Dashjr has sparked controversy in the crypto community by claiming that major exchanges are selling 'fake Bitcoins.'

This accusation follows a Bitcoin hard fork on September 1, which split the network into two chains: BLAKE2b and SHA-256. Dashjr supports the BLAKE2b chain and views the SHA-256 chain as an attack on the network.

He argues that exchanges that list both chains are incompetent or engaging in intentional fraud by selling 'fake Bitcoins.' Ripple's former CTO, David Schwartz, has dismissed Dashjr's claim as nonsense.

The Bitcoin hard fork was designed to lock out existing ASIC rigs, but miner support for the BIP-110 fork peaked at 2.53%, far below the 55% threshold required for activation. The hashrate on the BLAKE2b chain has been declining since the split, and Blockstream CEO Adam Back summed up the episode by saying 'Live by the fork, die by the fork.'

Exchanges have not listed the forked coin, but one small venue opened deposits under the ticker BTCB2, with bids reaching $82 earlier this week. Bitcoin (BTC) trades near $80,670 after a 3.83% gain in 24 hours.