The Contenders
On November 24, 2017, the Bitcoin blockchain witnessed yet another hard fork as two anonymous development teams — Team EVEY and Team 007 — executed the creation of Bitcoin Diamond (BCD) at block 495,866. The fork arrived during a period of unprecedented activity in the cryptocurrency space, with Bitcoin trading around $8,227 on Kraken and the broader market capitalization surging past $150 billion. Bitcoin Diamond joined a growing list of Bitcoin forks in 2017, including Bitcoin Cash (August) and Bitcoin Gold (October), each claiming to address perceived shortcomings in the original protocol.
Tech Stack Showdown
Bitcoin Diamond differentiates itself from Bitcoin through several technical modifications. The most striking change is the total supply: BCD offers 210 million tokens, exactly ten times Bitcoin’s 21 million cap. At launch, holders received 10 BCD for every 1 BTC held, with 170 million tokens distributed to existing Bitcoin holders and the remaining 40 million reserved as mining rewards. The fork also introduced the X13 algorithm, a multi-stage hashing function designed to resist ASIC mining — a direct response to concerns about mining centralization that had plagued Bitcoin as companies like Bitmain dominated hash power production.
Unlike Bitcoin’s SHA-256 algorithm, which effectively requires specialized hardware for profitable mining, X13 was intended to keep mining accessible to individual participants using consumer-grade GPUs. Bitcoin Diamond also increased block sizes as a solution to Bitcoin’s well-documented scalability bottleneck, where blocks were filling up and transaction fees were climbing to uncomfortable levels during peak usage periods.
Community & Ecosystem
The reception to Bitcoin Diamond was mixed, to say the least. The cryptocurrency community had already experienced “fork fatigue” by late November 2017. The SegWit2x hard fork had been called off just weeks earlier, and Bitcoin Cash had established itself as the primary “big block” alternative. Bitcoin Diamond’s anonymous development teams raised immediate red flags for many observers. Unlike Bitcoin Cash, which had prominent backers like Roger Ver and Jihan Wu, BCD’s creators remained shadowy figures communicating primarily through online forums.
Critics pointed out that the project’s white paper offered few genuinely innovative solutions beyond what Bitcoin Cash or other forks were already attempting. The decision to multiply the token supply by 10x was particularly controversial, with skeptics arguing it diluted value rather than creating it. On the other hand, supporters saw the fork as another legitimate experiment in decentralized governance and protocol evolution — a core tenet of the blockchain ethos.
Adoption Metrics
On Black Friday 2017, as American shoppers hit the malls, the crypto market was in full rally mode. Bitcoin had gained nearly 800% year-to-date from its January 1 price of $964. Ethereum was hitting new all-time highs above $456, climbing 10.3% in a single day on Kraken. Bitcoin Cash also reached an ATH of $1,666.44, rising 5.61% in 24 hours. Total trading volume across Kraken alone reached $268 million that day. Against this roaring bull market backdrop, Bitcoin Diamond benefited from the general euphoria, with several exchanges listing BCD trading pairs shortly after the fork.
However, real adoption remained thin. Unlike Bitcoin Cash, which had genuine merchant adoption through payment processors and a passionate community of supporters, Bitcoin Diamond struggled to establish a compelling use case beyond being “another fork claiming to fix Bitcoin.”
The Final Verdict
Bitcoin Diamond’s launch perfectly encapsulated the fork mania of late 2017. In a market where seemingly anything with “Bitcoin” in its name attracted speculative capital, BCD found its moment — but the question of lasting value remained entirely unanswered. The project addressed real concerns about scalability and mining centralization, but so did half a dozen other projects with more transparent teams and stronger community backing. For investors navigating the November 2017 bull run, Bitcoin Diamond served as a reminder that not all forks are created equal, and the difference between innovation and opportunism in the crypto space often comes down to execution, transparency, and genuine adoption — qualities that only time can reveal.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments carry significant risk. Always conduct your own research before making investment decisions.
210 million supply because 10x bitcoin sounded cool in a meeting. BCD was pure cash grab noise during the 2017 fork frenzy
fork_grave_ at least bitcoin cash had a real ideological split. BCD was anonymous dev teams promising bigger blocks AND privacy AND ASIC resistance. delivered on none of it
X13 algorithm to resist ASICs lasted about 6 months before ASICs were built for it anyway. same story every time
Team EVEY and Team 007, two anonymous groups, forking the most important blockchain in the world. 2017 was unhinged
2017 was the year of anonymous teams forking bitcoin and printing millions. BCD, BTG, BCX, SBTC. all dead or zombie chains now
210 million supply just to differentiate from BTC. they literally changed the decimal place and called it innovation. 2017 fork season was unhinged
Tomas H. the X13 anti-ASIC algorithm lasted about 5 minutes before ASICs were built for it. every anti-ASIC claim from that era aged like milk
210 million supply, 10x BTC. they literally just multiplied by 10 and called it innovation. classic fork cash grab
X13 algorithm to resist ASICs was actually a decent idea at the time, too bad the whole project had zero credibility
X13 was a copy from dash. they literally took dashs mining algo and slapped it on a btc fork. zero original work
chaintease X13 was literally dashs algorithm copy pasted. even the multi-stage hashing sequence was identical. zero attempt at originality
fork_forensics Dash X13 was open source so technically not stolen, but BCD taking it with zero credit and calling it innovation was classic 2017 fork theater
dash devs were not happy about that either. saw some of them complaining on bitcointalk back in the day
dash devs had every right to complain. X13 was their work and BCD just grabbed it without credit. 2017 fork culture was pure plagiarism dressed as innovation
the 10x supply was the biggest red flag. more tokens != more value, somehow fork teams never got that memo
210 million supply and the pitch was literally 10x BTC. somehow more tokens = more valuable. every fork team in 2017 was pitching the same nonsense
fork_trash_ Team EVEY and Team 007 were anonymous and still managed to convince exchanges to list BCD at launch. the 2017 ICO fever made zero sense
fork_trash_ the 10x supply trick was the laziest pitch in crypto. more tokens equals cheaper per unit so feels affordable. pure retail psychology
not just multiplied by 10. they also used the X13 algorithm to block ASICs which was at least an attempt at something different. execution was still garbage though
10 BCD per BTC at block 495866. i claimed my airdrop, sold immediately at $12, and thought i was a genius. token went to $100 briefly. still hurts
kohei_m sold at $12 and felt like a genius for about 3 weeks. then BCD briefly hit $100 and I wanted to throw my monitor out the window
Team EVEY and Team 007 being fully anonymous while asking people to trust a 210M supply fork with their bitcoin holdings. 2017 fork culture was genuinely unhinged
10 BCD per 1 BTC airdropped at block 495866. everyone claimed free money but nobody asked why a bitcoin fork needed 210 million tokens. pure supply inflation theater
BCD still has a $40M market cap somehow. the fact that any 2017 fork survived at all is a testament to how irrational this market can be
forkfatigue_ Team EVEY and 007 being anonymous was bad enough but the real red flag was the premine. 40M tokens reserved for team and ecosystem out of 210M. thats 19% to anons
X13 algorithm to block ASICs. cute idea except it lasted about 4 months before ASICs were built for it anyway. same story every time