Bitcoin holders face unresolved fork risks as new eCash test chain launches ahead of October deadline

An eCash fork, which would create a separate ECX asset for Bitcoin holders, produced Alpha-chain blocks from height 963,648 on Aug. 23. The permanent fork did not happen: the project’s current roadmap now places the 1:1 allocation of permanent ECX at a Mainnet launch around Bitcoin block 973,728 on Oct. 31.

For holders, miners and exchanges, Aug. 23 became a rehearsal rather than the permanent allocation event. Bitcoin ownership did not change, practice pECX is not permanent ECX, and public exchange notices did not show a universal freeze of Bitcoin services.

What the Alpha chain proved

The eCash Alpha explorer showed a block at height 963,648 and the chain advancing through at least 963,650. It also flagged a stale competing block at the opening height, evidence of a young rehearsal network rather than a settled production chain.

Bitcoin’s own record was separate. Mempool.space resolved Bitcoin block 963,648 to hash 00000000000000000001769d9a327f5b455aa8a2dd407b1b63040d2a9f832d32 and displayed a timestamp of 2026-08-23 01:48:47. Together, the two records show an Alpha chain running alongside Bitcoin, not a permanent replacement for it.

What remains before the eCash fork

The revised schedule has three stages: Alpha at roughly 963,648 on Aug. 23, Beta near 967,680 on Sept. 20 and permanent Mainnet near 973,728 on Oct. 31. Alpha and Beta produce practice pECX rather than the permanent 1:1 balance copied from Bitcoin.

The project says practice units can be burned for real ECX at Mainnet. Founder Paul Sztorc said 1,000 pECX could be redeemed for 10 ECX. The supplied evidence does not establish that Alpha transaction history or balances automatically carry into Beta or Mainnet, so pECX is not an early permanent allocation.

The production handoff is also unfinished. The project’s integration guide, last updated Aug. 11 and marked pre-launch, still treats 963,648 as the production fork point and labels key values as drynet4 parameters. It says the final fork hash, software branch or tag and replay scheme will be published later.

Current coin-splitting guidance uses an opt-in nLockTime of 499999999 for ECX transactions, but tells integrators to verify the final scheme before launch.

Pre-Alpha notices generally kept Bitcoin services available while reserving later risk-based changes. GMO Coin said covered Bitcoin services would continue. Coincheck, SBI VC Trade and Zaif published similar continuity plans.

Their treatment of the new asset was different. GMO said it would not handle pECX or ECX during Alpha and Beta, while Coincheck, SBI and Zaif left later ECX crediting, listing or handling undecided.

The eCash fork’s Aug. 23 Alpha stage was therefore low-impact for BTC ownership but still operationally useful as a test window. For miners, wallets and exchanges, the next production target is Oct. 31, and final software and replay details remain the key checkpoint.

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