After 19 splits in 2017, forking could divide Bitcoin 50 times in 2018

A fork can often make millions for its developers as well as the server farms running and supporting the new software

Bitcoin God arrived last month. Bitcoin Pizza was delivered in January. Bitcoin Private’s issuance date is... still a secret.

They’re just a few of the growing stable of so-called forks -- a type of spinoff in which developers clone Bitcoin’s software, release it with a new name, a new coin and possibly a few new features. Often, the idea is to capitalise on the public’s familiarity with Bitcoin to make some serious money, at least virtually.

Some 19 Bitcoin forks came out last year -- but up to 50 more could happen this year, according to Lex Sokolin, global director of fintech