The next Bitcoin split has been called off. Segwit2x has not reached the consensus it was anticipating. This is amazing news for anyone fearing a fall of bitcoin price.
Segwit2x falters
Starting from the meeting “Breaking Bitcoin” in Paris; held in September, support was lacking for the scaling fork. In fact the meeting meant to sway the community in favor of the split had more “supporters” against it. Buttons and stickers displaying No2x was shared amongst those in attendance instead. Yet even so supporters for the split continued to work and improve.
What was Segwit2X?
Segwit2x was intended to increase the size of all blocks after block 494,784 which was expected closer to November the 16th. Mike Belshe; CEO and co-founder of BitGo as well as a leader of the scaling group announced the suspension of the idea in an email. The suspension is due to the lack of consensus as well as planning for the upcoming 2MB upgrade. Belshe made it clear that the goal was never intended to split the community, and instead help Bitcoin overall. The suspension of Segwit2x does leave room for its return; however if there is a lack of consensus again it is safe to assume a second suspension or a cancel altogether. Many supporters for Segwit2x also signed the note emailed by Belshe, but all are hopeful for potential scaling support in the future.
“There is no such thing as a safe hard fork”
It is very important to note that the supporters of Segwit2x 100% support the good of Bitcoin. At Breaking Bitcoin Jimmy Song ended the meeting stating that its failure helped Bitcoin. That the community and developers are “getting immunized” to hard forks. A better Bitcoin is being created. And more support to this claim is seen in the email by Belshe as well.
