There is only one Bitcoin network - How were the other versions created?

I've seen a couple of new people confused about "the different types of Bitcoin" out there. Well, there is only one Bitcoin that everyone is talking about, and that's the one sitting at #1 at the ranking at CMC. It was launched in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto.

However, a quick search on the same website already show numerous other "Bitcoins" you could buy. I can imagine this would raise some eyebrows as a newcomer.

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Searched \"Bitcoin\" on CMC

Some of these are completely random and/or true shitcoins. Other actually have some relation with the original network.

Main consensus forks of Bitcoin v8.1 - by Lugaxker

As shown above, eCash, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV and Bitcoin Gold are a product of Hard Forking the main Bitcoin network. So in short (I know, we don't like reading here), what is Hard Forking?

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• A hard fork refers to a radical change to the protocol of a blockchain network. This change is so radical that it effectively results in two branches, one that follows the previous protocol and one that follows the new version.
• In a hard fork, holders of tokens in the original blockchain will be granted tokens in the new fork as well, but miners must choose which blockchain to continue verifying.
• A hard fork can occur in any blockchain, and not only Bitcoin (for example, Ethereum moving from PoW to PoS)

But don't get confused, Bitcoin (BTC) is king.

Cheers!

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