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.
Team EVEY and Team 007, two anonymous groups, forking the most important blockchain in the world. 2017 was unhinged
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