Intellectual Property & Forks

8 min readarticleIncludes quiz · 3 questions

Bitcoin is open‑source. Code is shared under permissive licenses, and anyone can copy (fork) it. Community adoption decides which chain has value.

Simple definitions:

  • Open‑source license: Legal terms allowing code reuse/modification.
  • Hard fork: Non‑backwards compatible rule change creating a new chain.
  • Soft fork: Backwards‑compatible rule change.
  • Trademark/brand: Names/logos may have separate protections.

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