What is the potential impact of Bitcoin forking, given that it's trivial[1]? Q1. We can differentiate between fiat currencies by looking at the qualities of th

What is the potential impact of Bitcoin forking, given that it's trivial[1]? Q1. We can differentiate between fiat currencies by looking at the qualities of the issuing authority, and thus determine that it's better to have savings in Swiss Francs rather than Zimbabwean Dollars. With Bitcoin, Litecoin and other forks, how do we differentiate apart from popularity of the network? Q2. I've heard the argument that Bitcoin is valuable because there is scarcity in the system, a limit to the number of coins, thus it is similar to gold. However, if tomorrow somebody discovered vast amounts of pink gold, with exactly the same chemical and physical properties as gold, except for the colour, it's likely the price of gold would fall. As Bitcoin is facing this exact scenario via forking, what are the potential consequences, and does it even matter? [1] http://litecoin.org http://litecoin.org (changed the hashing algorithm from SHA256 to Scrypt)