https://medium.com/@bitcoinatom/why-are-atomic-swaps-better-than-trading-on-exchanges-798492e150fd
based on that article BCA really seems to be upgraded BTC. keep up the good work devs, I'd appreciate more texts like that to learn as much as I can about your project and crypto in general
Both statements are true in this context.
Bitcoin Atom is a fork of the Bitcoin blockchain with major protocol upgrades that will occur in December. At the predetermined block number the original BTC blockchain will be forked into BCA, and any transactions made since then will be completely separate on Bitcoin and Bitcoin Atom networks. At that moment, Bitcoin Atom will go live on mainnet and become an independent cryptocurrency.
Thus, it is both a new cryptocurrency and a new upgraded version of BTC.
As a Bitcoin fork, Bitcoin Atom (BCA) attempts to eliminate weaknesses in BTC by bringing a hybrid consensus approach, on-chain atomic swaps via HTLCs and their faster off-chain lightning analogs.