Thanks for your answer, I like this discussion, it is a big deal finally (it is about freedom and money, two most important things in life). A sidechain is build on the blockchain itself whereby a real BTC get frozen or locked up and this BTC can get traded in the sidechain under different conditions.

A fork is a copy of the blockchain whereby some of the rules are changed. Because of the changed rules the blockchains are not compatible with each other anymore, so a new crypto currency is created. This means a sidechain will not increase the supply because one coin will be in the main chain OR in the side chain. A forked coin will exist next to the legacy coin, so actually you can see it as counterfeiting.

Almost all the proposed forks in the history (Classic, Unlimited, 2X) were intended to UPDATE the bitcoin protocol. This means they hoped to get a big majority on board so that only one chain with the new rules will exist after the fork. However, they could never find consensus so they all failed. This means that the majority of the users is still backing Core its roadmap. Bcash was a so called 'friendly fork' because their intention was to exist next to Bitcoin as an altcoin (at least around the fork this was the case).

1: I agree, fees are very high but I believe it is because side chains are a long term solution that makes it possible to scale exponential and without giving up security and decentralization (don't forget that the implementation of Segwit is blocked by the 'big block' community for more than a year, and Segwit is the base for side chains and will enable more transactions unchain). I think 2018 will be the year that side chains will come available for the users, in the beginning of the month Rootstock is launched and the first Lightning transactions on the main net are made! I think in 2018 wallets will implement it and you can really use it!

Bcash is indeed by far not the best coin for transactions. When I move money between exchanges I use Dash or Litecoin because the block time is shorter and most of the time you need 6 confirmations. Beside that Litecoin has Segwit too, so the Lightning networks of BTC and LTC can be connected using atomic swaps. This means that a you can send BTC to someone that accepts BTC while using the cheap and fast LTC blockchain. Also LTC has a way longer track record and bigger infrastructure. Bcash is really hyped for political means without any interesting features in my opinion.

2: I mean if you can let order your wallet to search for a path from sender to receiver with 5 nodes, non of this nodes know who is the sender and who is the receiver. So even if they implement AML / KYC the information is useless.

3: ETH is very complicated and full of vulnerabilities. The smart contracts on BTC that make LN possible are very basic and simple.

4: Yes in mining monopolies are a problem, BTC tries to keep that problem as small as possible and Bcash gives miners even more power. I was talking when Blockstream will get a monopoly on software, services or items for a sidechain, someone can just fork the sidechain and take the factor out that gives them the monopoly. I think it is impossible to get a monopoly on a open source sidechain.

I HODL around half of my forks, because they are in deep cold storage. The rest I sell in a pump. Two days ago I dumped Bcash and bought Zclassic for it. Seems to be a very rewarding trade till now. If you see the Bcash chart there are 2 very recognizable pump and dump peaks and the 2nd looks incredible like the first one. The overall trend in USD is up, but in BTC is down. I think Bcash will die slowly with a few pump and dumps on the way.

It is very sad that the crypto community get divided, we came so far and now really the sky is the limid. It would be so sad if it get damaged from the inside. I really think misinforming new people done by bitcoin,com and r/btc is really confusing people and slowing down adoption. Furthermore Roger Ver has shown a really bad show to the world with his last two attacks (embarrassing for bitcoin and voluntarism). For sure I don't want to live in his 'free society', because I expect it to become a shithole full of manipulation and brainwashing. I was hoping for a better promotion of libertarianism and anarchy.