Bitcoin hardfork is canceled ... Or not?

    A few days ago, the developers of the SegWit2x protocol unexpectedly stated that hardfork Bitcoin is being canceled. This statement was signed by the core members of the SegWit2x group, which includes Mike Belsh (BitGo), Vences Casares (Xapo), Cihan Wu (Bitmain), Jeff Garzik (lead developer of SegWit2x), Peter Smith (Blockchain.info) and Eric Vorches (ShapeShift ).

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    “The Segwit2x initiative began in May with the simple goal of increasing block size and increasing Bitcoin scalability. Then the Bitcoin community was in crisis after almost three years of heated discussions. The consensus on SegWit, with the support of about 30% of miners, seemed no more than a mirage. The first success of Segwit2x was expected in August, when we broke the deadlock and successfully activated SegWit, ”the statement says. Representatives of the group claim that they did not plan to divide the Bitcoin community into two camps.

    According to the developers, the main goal was a smooth upgrade of the Bitcoin infrastructure. The need to implement SegWit2x is beyond doubt. At the same time, there are more important things that all participants in the development process believe in - maintaining community unity. But since consensus was not reached, the developers decided to abandon hard forks.

    The SegWit2x group believes that in the future, and not very distant, the Bitcoin network infrastructure will still have to be upgraded to increase network bandwidth. First of all, it is necessary to increase the block size from 1 to 2 MB, which will increase the efficiency of the entire Bitcoin network.

    “We want to thank everyone who has made a constructive contribution to Segwit2x, regardless of whether you were for or against. Your efforts are what makes bitcoin great, ”the Segwit2x supporters said in a statement.

    Some groups and individual developers, who initially supported the protocol, subsequently abandoned their intentions and stated that the solution does not have sufficiently transparent network conditions, an imperfect code and a number of technical problems that need to be addressed as soon as possible. Since none of the above has been corrected, such players of the cryptocurrency market as Bitwala, F2Pool, the Bitcoin community of Brazil, Argentina and Hong Kong have abandoned the initial support of the agreement on hardfork.

    Bitcoin exchange rate against the US dollar first rose sharply to a record high of almost $ 8,000, and then fell to previous values. True, after he resumed growth, although not as active as before.

    And it's all?


    Not. Yesterday, the bitPico mining pool, about which few people had heard, said that it controls more than 30% of the bitcoin network's hashrate and announced its intention to complete what was started - to implement hardfork.

    “We are going to hold hardfork anyway, since everything is ready for this. Now our main strategy is to reduce the complexity of calculations. Why hashrate fell by 30%? Does this surprise you? The fact is that this share belongs to us, and we continue to do what has been started, ” representatives of the pool said .


    Bitcoin network hashrate dynamics over the past few weeks.

    The most interesting thing in this whole story is that few people understand what is happening. Does this pool really exist, and is it really that it controls a third of the bitcoin hashrate? Nobody knows.


    Analysts believe that there is a possibility that traders are behind the bitPico pool, who are not too happy with the fact that futures for SegWit2X (yes, there are already such) have fallen by more than 70% since the announcement of the hard forks stopping.



    It may well be that all this is just a rumor created by a group of individuals to create pressure on the course of Bitcoin. Whatever it was, but a certain resonance in the Bitcoin community has already arisen, and it is unlikely that the tension caused by the bitPico statement will soon disappear. In principle, there is every chance that these are really the actions of crypto traders seeking to monetize rumors about hard forks. In order to find out if this is true, you just need to wait a bit.

    In the meantime, we are watching the development of events and do not make hasty conclusions.


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