Bitcoin Private completed its two-ledger fork-merge

Bitcoin Private’s fork-import process had finished and its main network was operating by March 3, 2018, creating a new proof-of-work chain from Zclassic while importing claims based on both Bitcoin and Zclassic balances. The launch was unusual even in the crowded 2017–2018 fork cycle: rather than split one live ledger at a single block, the project described its method as a “fork-merge” of two unspent-transaction-output sets.

The project’s surviving announcement says the process began on March 2 and finished on March 3, although that page mistakenly labels the year as 2017. The archived node code provides stronger date evidence: its main-chain checkpoint at height 279,500 carries Unix timestamp 1520105951, or March 3, 2018 at 19:39:11 UTC. That establishes an operating chain by the target date, but it does not independently prove the precise public-launch minute.

What the fork-merge changed

The project took its technical base from Zclassic, itself derived from Zcash, and added a snapshot of Bitcoin’s spendable outputs. Its February 2018 white paper set the qualifying snapshot at the first Bitcoin and Zclassic blocks timestamped after 17:00 UTC on February 28. Holders were promised one BTCP for each qualifying BTC and one BTCP for each qualifying ZCL, mapped to corresponding addresses on the new chain.

This was not a change to Bitcoin’s consensus rules and did not move anyone’s BTC. It created a separate asset and network whose balances could be claimed with keys associated with pre-snapshot outputs. That distinction mattered because the Bitcoin name could suggest continuity that the protocol did not possess: Bitcoin nodes did not validate BTCP blocks, and BTCP miners did not secure Bitcoin.

The launch specification advertised 2-megabyte blocks, a 2.5-minute target interval and Equihash proof of work. It also offered transparent transfers and shielded transfers using zk-SNARKs. Those were design claims, not evidence on March 3 that users had adopted the network, that shielded transfers were widely usable, or that the chain had durable mining security.

Why it mattered on March 3

Bitcoin Private condensed several forces shaping the market after the 2017 boom: the multiplication of Bitcoin-branded forks, demand for transaction privacy and the use of snapshots to distribute a new token without a conventional public sale. A contemporaneous CoinDesk report treated the project as newly launched but questioned what differentiated it from Zcash. That skepticism was institutionally relevant. A copied balance set could create immediate potential holders, yet it could not by itself create exchange liquidity, developer depth, wallet safety or sustained hash power.

There is no defensible event-day BTCP spot-price claim in this reconstruction. Trading venues were fragmented, launch timing differed across reports, and the surviving sources do not provide a consistent, attributable March 3 UTC price window. The event is therefore best read as a protocol launch and distribution experiment, not as a reliable market-valuation milestone.

Later context

Evidence published in December 2018 materially changed the supply record. Coin Metrics’ later chain analysis, reported by The Block, concluded that 2.04 million additional BTCP had been created during the Bitcoin-output import, contradicting the project’s stated 21 million cap. That finding was not knowable from the launch-day materials and should not be projected into what observers could verify on March 3. It does, however, explain why the reconstruction treats the project’s original supply statements as contemporaneous claims rather than established fact.