Segwit2x and the Tale of Three Bitcoins

As the entire community has been laser-focused on the recent hard fork and Bitcoin network split, many people have forgotten about the Segwit2x plan. Miners who participated in the ‘New York Agreement’ (NYA) have kept their promise and Segregated Witness will lock-in on the network in roughly two weeks. Also read: Gwyneth Paltrow Joins Bitcoin Wallet Abra as Advisor

Let’s Not Forget About Segwit2x

A few more changes are coming to the Bitcoin network in the near future. The Segwit2x plan often referred to as NYA is still following its course towards protocol activation of Segwit. At the time of writing, there are 621 blocks remaining for BIP 141 (Segwit) lock-in, and the plan ‘seems’ to be running smoothly. The vast majority of miners who agreed to the Segwit2x proposal are still following through with at least half of the plan. The second half of Segwit2x intention involves the 2MB hard fork which is scheduled to occur in November.

However, weeks before the recent hard fork, a large portion of the user-activated soft fork (UASF) supporters, and Core developers have been vehemently opposing the second half of the NYA plan. Now that Bitcoin Cash exists, this has caused quite a few people to start envisioning three bitcoins; one that has Segwit only, one with both Segwit and the 2MB block increase, and the 8MB Bitcoin Cash.

Doubling the Block Size Would Be the ‘End of the World’

On August 4 one individual wrote about his concerns about this outcome on the subreddit r/btc called, “Core Devs: it is imperative that you endorse Segwit2x. If you don’t, then we can end up with three ‘Bitcoins.’ Please, have a little humility, avoid another contentious hard fork.” The person believes that if Core developers and many other others refuse to follow through with the second part of the plan, then there could be another chain split. “Doubling the block size of the Bitcoin blockchain is NOT the end of the world, and it will come with many benefits as well,” explains the thread’s author. One of the Core Bitcoin repository contributors, Luke-jr, reveals his opinion regarding the 2MB portion of the NYA plan. “Forget it — Segwit2x is not going to happen —If you want my support, get the proposal changed to something sane,” explains Core developer Luke-jr. Then Luke-jr replied to the statement of how doubling the block size would not be the end of the world. “Yes, it is,” the developer adds. Luke-jr is not the only bitcoin developer that won’t agree to the next part of the Segwit2x plan. This includes Greg Maxwell, Wladimir van der laan, Jorge Timon, Eric Lombrozo, and many others.

   Bitcoin Cash Is Here, but Segwit2x Will Continue as Planned

After the birth of Bitcoin Cash, Jeff Garzik, one of the lead maintainers of the Segwit2x code, confirms that Segwit2x is still on schedule. When asked on Twitter whether the compromise was going forward because ‘big blockers’ got their wish with Bitcoin Cash, Garzik responds saying;

Segwit2x and NYA have successfully met all goals so far, and continue as planned.

After August 1st the playing field is starting to get very interesting, and because the UASF and UAHF were planned in advance, many Bitcoiners had a feeling something was going to happen. Quite a few UASF supporters believe the UASF movement is what managed to push Segwit. However, these same supporters seem to have also caused some ‘blowback’ as well with the UAHF (Bitcoin Cash) plan following shortly after the movement started. Now even though Segwit2x has a large majority of miner support and lots of businesses and infrastructure behind it, we could still see another split. There’s over three months left for the Bitcoin ‘community’ to work this out, but some believe it’s looking dreary already. What do you think about the upcoming plans for Segwit2x? Do you think it’s possible we could see three sets of bitcoins? Let us know in the comments below.

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Images via Pixabay, and Coin Dance.

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