Bitcoin did play a huge role in Ethereum's hard fork
Who had a reason to help Ethereum Classic to survive the ETC fork?
This might be a wrong thought but it is potentially possible that theDAO hack is connected with the survival of ETC. You can not deny that 'The DAO' hacker made sure that the Ethereum developer team had surely not much of a choice but initiate a hardfork to solve the problem.
And who does profit from a split chain?
- Bitcoin small blockers who wanted to invest in a competitive Ethereum chain
- Bitcoin big blockers did already invest in Ethereum a long time ago (initiated by the 1MB stalling)
Is Ethereum a threat to Bitcoin?
Sure it is. Ethereum's market capitalization came dangerously close to Bitcoin's market cap even though Ethereum is targeting a different use case. If there is really a use case for a world computer, then it is either a good idea to:
- Invest in Ethereum (but gaining no real influence power in the future)
- Harm Ethereum (Bitcoin will stay on top of cryptocurrencies)
- Provoke an Ethereum hard fork (Control a competitive world computer Blockchain )
The DAO hacker exploited the security issue to force a hardfork on ETH
The Dao attacker knew exactly that the Ethereum dev team would fork the blockchain. After all, the hacker would be able to control more than 10% of all ETHs. At this early stage, it would mean that the attacker could block the project dramatically at a later point when Ethereum's proof of work would switch to proof of stake. You don't want a black hat attacker to hold 14% of all ETH tokens.
Also the Bitcoin big blockers had a reason to cause an Ethereum hardfork
It is true that the Bitcoin blocksize debate is going on for years and the big blockers had a reason to prove a point that hardforking a blockchain is not dangerous and should therefore be applied when an upgrade is necessary. Surely, they wanted the ETC chain to extinguish as fast as possible.
Mostly small blockers investors helped ETC to survive
Creating a fake market demand for Ethereum Classic, investors with deep pockets started to purchase ETC tokens. Exchanges were happy to fill that market demand and offered trading ETC.
The future of cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrencies are the most interesting technology since the internet. It will change all interactions. It will change the world order. Some of the current world asset holders know that, that is why there is so much disagreement between the ones who want to be part of creating the future.