A fresh hard fork in the Bitcoin blockchain has given birth to a new Bitcoin (EXANTE: Bitcoin) derivative named Bitcoin Atom (BCA). The Bitcoin Atom hard fork took place as expected at block number 505888 on January 24, the project announced in a Twitter post.
Bitcoin Atom hard fork took place at block 505888 as expected. #BitcoinAtom #Bitcoin #AtomicSwaps #LightningNetwork pic.twitter.com/oGeJ1b9YJB
— Bitcoin Atom (@atombitcoin) January 24, 2018
According to Medium, Bitcoin Atom (BCA) is a SegWit enabled Bitcoin fork with atomic swaps, hybrid consensus and lightning network.
Bitcoin Atom enables truly decentralized digital asset exchange by utilizing hash time-locked contracts (HTLCs) and its own HTLC API, giving independence from intermediaries and any centralized entities.
All Bitcoin holders, who possess their private keys at the moment of the fork, will receive Bitcoin Atom at the rate of 1 BTC = 1 BCA. It’s necessary to either control Bitcoin private keys or store BTC with one of the partners in order to claim and transact Bitcoin Atom.
Some of the cryptocurrency exchanges, which have extended their support to Bitcoin Atom, include OKEX, Yobit, Exrates, More TBA.
Wallets supporting Bitcoin Atom include MyAtom Wallet, ESR Wallet, Bitcoin Atom, Coinomi and More TBA. The Bitcoin Atomic futures have already started trading on Yobit exchange and is currently trading at a price of $411 according to CoinMarketCap.
An earlier Bloomberg report said some 19 Bitcoin forks came out last year, and up to 50 more could come this year.