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 provedThe 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 forkThe revised sche...