What Is Segsit2x?

As two proposals for boosting bitcoin's transaction capacity approach key deadlines, one proposal, known as SegWit2x, has perhaps garnered the most attention.

The plan, first proposed in May, quickly won favor among many of bitcoin's startups and mining pools. Yet, it has also emerged as contentious in some quarters, owing to its specific goals and technical construction.

But, what's at the heart of the arguments for and against?

First, SegWit2x seeks to upgrade bitcoin in two ways:

  1. It would enact the long-proposed code optimization Segregated Witness (SegWit), which alters how some data is stored on the network.
  2. It would set a timeline for increasing the network's block size to 2MB, up from 1MB today, to be triggered about three months after the SegWit activation.

Understanding the ins and outs of the proposal from here can be challenging. While technical, the proposal is also political and philosophical (and some would argue, personal).

Still, the specifics of the debate revolve around basic facts about current network design and performance.

These include:

  1. Bitcoin is currently limited in the number of transactions it can process. Today, it can only process up to 1MB of transactions roughly every 10 minutes.
  2. Owing to this limit, transactions take longer to approve during times of heavy use.
  3. As all users pay a fee to miners to make transactions, this limitation on space has increased average fee costs.
  4. Increasing the block size makes network nodes more costly, as node operators must store the entire copy of the blockchain as computer files.

The Basics

To begin, SegWit2x is not the first proposal for scaling bitcoin's transaction capacity.

SegWit2x, though, differs in some key ways.

These include:

As outlined above, these ideas include:

SegWit was officially released last November, giving network users the option to run it. But, for technical reasons, it required mining pools to activate the change, and they have been hesitant to adopt the change for a variety of reasons.

SegWit2x is being deployed in its testnet to all working group members on July 14, and the period for live adoption starts on July 21, with an August 1 deadline for necessary support to avoid issues.

Who supports it? Who opposes it?

In favor of SegWit2x are a significant number of high-profile bitcoin businesses and individuals, most of whom are more closely affiliated with the ecosystem's startup and investment community.

These include:

A full list of supporters can be found in the original SegWit2x agreement announcement.

Still, others oppose the plan, including:

Still, others oppose the plan, including:

The actively updated Bitcoin Wiki page offers a longer list of those who support, oppose and are undecided.

What's At Stake?

Looking ahead, the outcome of SegWit2x will depend on how many users ultimately adopt the proposal.

Several different outcomes could emerge, including:

As is to be expected from such a large ecosystem, different users have different opinions on the best course of action, perhaps owing to the competing ideologies underlying their participation in bitcoin to begin with. As such, SegWit2x is not the only scaling proposal receiving attention today. Several alternative proposals have been introduced that could be enacted on the network in the coming month.

SegWit2x is competing with another proposal: BIP 148.

Developers have worked to make these two compatible, so, if enough mining pools support SegWit2x before August 1, bitcoin should avoid a split. Yet, without the necessary support for SegWit2x, and an activation of BIP148, the network could fork.

And a split is what many bitcoin users are most concerned about, leading them to worry about the SegWit2x proposal in general. In light of these anxieties, one of two things could happen to user's bitcoin directly:

  1. With enough support, bitcoin upgraded to SegWit2x will work normally, and users will not likely experience any service disruptions.
  2. Without support, a bitcoin split puts users at risk of losing their bitcoin. Cryptocurrency experts propose not making bitcoin transactions during the uncertain time period around August 1.

Another longer term issue is that all users will need to upgrade their software in support of the 2MB hard fork component of SegWit2x, or bitcoin could split into two competing assets with different users.

How you can follow SegWit2x's progress?

As the SegWit2x code gets deployed on the testnet on July 14, and the period for adoption starts on July 21, many will be keeping a close eye on the evolving situation.

There are various places to track the project's development.

The SegWit2x mailing list can be found here (while public, only members who are invited can post to the list). Further, the SegWit2x code implementation, known as "BTC1", can be found here.

Community members can follow how many nodes are running SegWit2x software here and how many mining pools support the proposal here, as a means of keeping an eye on whether it achieves enough support.

Bitcoin’s very public scaling debate is entering a crucial phase. Two of the most popular scaling proposals available today — BIP148 and SegWit2x — both intend to trigger Segregated Witness (“SegWit”) activation within a month, which means that the protocol upgrade could be live within two.

At the same time, there is a very real risk that Bitcoin “splits.” Both BIP148 and SegWit2x could diverge from the current Bitcoin protocol, which could in turn lead to even more splits.

Here is a list of dates for July, August and beyond to keep an eye on.

Recap: Segregated Witness Activation

August 2nd update: Most of the information in this section is still accurate, but some of it is a bit outdated now. Keep in mind it was written about a month ago, before many of the recent developments occurred.

First, a brief recap on Segregated Witness and its potential activation methods.

SegWit is a backwards compatible protocol upgrade originally proposed by the Bitcoin Core development team. It has been a centrepiece of the scaling roadmap supported by Bitcoin Core since the protocol upgrade was first proposed in December 2015, and it is implemented on many active Bitcoin nodes on the network today. SegWit is now also part of the “New York Agreement”: an alternative scaling roadmap forged between a significant number of Bitcoin companies, including many miners. And Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 148, or BIP148, is a user activated soft fork (UASF) scheduled for August 1st that also intends to activate SegWit.

The difference lies in how the activation should happen.

The first and original option was proposed by the Bitcoin Core development team. Their SegWit code, defined by BIP141, activates if 95 percent of hash power within a single difficulty period of about two weeks signals readiness before November 15th. Assuming that the miners who signal readiness are actually ready to support the upgrade, risks of a split in Bitcoin’s blockchain and currency are minimal.

However, currently only some 40 to 45 percent of hash power is signaling readiness for BIP141. This is why a segment of Bitcoin users plans to activate SegWit with the BIP148 UASF. Starting on August 1st, their nodes will reject all blocks that do not signal readiness for BIP141. If this proposal is supported by any majority of miners (by hash power), these miners should always claim the longest valid chain, which should activate SegWit on all SegWit-ready Bitcoin clients and avoid a split. But if this proposal is supported by a minority of miners, a “BIP148 chain” would split off from the current protocol.

The New York Agreement, also referred to as the “Silbert Accord” or “SegWit2x,” plans to activate SegWit through BIP91. Like BIP148, all BIP91 nodes would reject any blocks that do not signal readiness for BIP141. But unlike BIP148, BIP91 nodes would only do this once 80 percent of hash power signals that they support BIP91, within a period about two days. This should also minimize the chance of a split.

However, the second step of the New York Agreement is a hard fork to double Bitcoin’s “base block size.” This change, as opposed to Segregated Witness itself, is not backwards compatible, and could therefore lead to a “split” as well.

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July 14: BTC1 Deployment

The software client that resulted from the New York Agreement is a fork of the Bitcoin Core codebase, called “BTC1.” BTC1’s beta software was released on June 30th. But according to the SegWit2x roadmap, July 14th is the day that signatories to the New York Agreement should actually install the BTC1 beta software and test it for themselves.

This shouldn’t affect regular users or miners much, however.

July 17th update: Deployment of BTC1 is delayed by a couple of days, but not in such a way as to distort the remainder of the timeline.

July 21: BIP91 Signaling to Start

The SegWit2x development team aims for July 21st to be the day that BTC1 nodes are actually up and running, and, importantly, the day that miner signaling should commence.

This shouldn’t really affect regular users either.

But if you are a miner, you may want to help activate SegWit by signaling readiness for BIP91. (This is done by mining “bit 4” blocks; for example, by mining with BTC1 or with Bitcoin software that includes a BIP91 patch.)

July 17th update: Several mining pools have already started signaling support for BIP91, even before the announced signaling date. At the time of publication of this update, the hash power threshold has not yet been met, however.

July 23 (at the earliest): BIP91 Lock In

The precise threshold for BIP91 activation requires that within a pre-defined series of 336 blocks, 269 blocks must signal readiness. That’s some 80 percent of hash power, over about 2 1/3 days. So assuming the SegWit2x roadmap is followed, BIP91 could, at the very soonest, lock in on July 23rd.

Again, this shouldn’t really affect regular users.

But if you are a miner and BIP91 does activate, you now have another day or two to comply with the BIP91 soft fork. If you don’t, you risk mining invalid blocks.

July 17th update: Since a number of mining pools have started to signal support for BIP91 early, the earliest BIP91 lock-in date has moved forward, too.

July 25 (at the earliest): BIP91 Activation

On July 25th, another 336 blocks after BIP91 “lock in”, BIP91 could actually go into effect, at the soonest. Any blocks that do not signal readiness for Segregated Witness (per BIP141) should now be rejected by a majority of miners (by hash power).

This still shouldn’t really affect regular users.

But if you are miner, you should now only mine blocks, and only mine on top of blocks, that signal readiness for SegWit (BIP141). Else you risk having your blocks rejected by a hash power majority.

July 17th update: Since several mining pools have started to signal support for BIP91 early, the earliest BIP91 activation date has moved forward too.

July 21st update: The 80 percent hash power lock-in threshold for BIP91 was reached today (UTC). This means that BIP91 should activate on July 23rd. If at least a majority of miners (by hash power) actually does enforce BIP91 for the next couple of weeks, this should make BIP148 obsolete.

July 29: BIP91 "Deadline"

If Bitcoin miners want to be sure to avoid a “split” in Bitcoin’s blockchain and currency as a result of BIP148 activation, July 29th is a first deadline day for them.

July 17th update: Since the next deadline is already missed (see below), July 29th is now the second deadline day for miners, not the first.

To ensure that BTC1’s BIP91 is activated in time to be compatible with BIP148, it should be locked in on this day at the very latest, say, before 08:00 UTC. (That’s 4 am on the U.S. east coast.) But sooner is better: The closer to the deadline BIP91 locks in, the bigger the risk it doesn’t activate in time.

If BIP91 has not activated by this deadline, Bitcoin may well be heading for a chain-split.

If this happens, and if you are a regular user, and you haven’t prepared for a potential BIP148 UASF chain-split yet, you now have two days left to do so. And you really should. This article explains how.

If BIP91 has not activated by July 29th and you are a miner, you now have two days to decide on which chain you will mine on August 1st: on the BIP148 chain, or on the original (“Legacy”) chain.

If Bitcoin miners want to be sure to avoid a “split” in Bitcoin’s blockchain and currency as a result of BIP148 activation, July 31st is technically the miners’ second deadline day to avoid a split.

On this day (UTC), at the very latest, either BIP91 must activate, or BIP141 must lock in. In other words, if BIP91 did not lock in in time, there must now have been a two-week difficulty period in which 95 percent of hash power signals support for SegWit.

In reality, the chance is small that July 31st actually coincides with the closing day for a difficulty period. And even if it does, it’s unlikely that it will take until this day before it’s clear whether the 95 percent threshold will be met.

As such, both users and miners should have probably already prepared for a potential split, as explained for July 29th. But July 31st really is your last chance to get ready.

August 1: BIP148 Activation

This is the day BIP148 activates, which makes it the third and final deadline day for miners to avoid a split.

On August 1st, at 00:00 UTC (note that this is still July 31st in the U.S.), all BIP148 nodes will start rejecting any blocks that do not signal readiness for Segregated Witness (per BIP141). If Bitcoin Core’s BIP141 or BTC1’s BIP91 have locked in and/or activated in time, there should be no chain-split.

If neither has happened, a majority of miners (by hash power) now have one last chance to avoid a chain-split: by supporting BIP148 themselves. This would ensure they always (re-)claim the longest valid chain according to all current Bitcoin nodes, and will activate SegWit through BIP141.

If BIP141, BIP91 nor BIP148 have attracted sufficient hash power by August 1st, but BIP148 does gain some traction, the chain could split on this day. If that happens, there will be two types of “Bitcoin,” which we’ll refer to as “148 Bitcoin” or “148BTC” for the BIP148 side of the split, and “Legacy Bitcoin” or “LegacyBTC” for the other side. (This split could resolve over time if 148 Bitcoin ever reclaims the longest chain, or if 148 Bitcoin is abandoned by all miners and users for good, but this is not the focus of this article.)

If you own bitcoin (that is: private keys) at the time of split you should automatically own both 148BTC and LegacyBTC. Though, to access both types, you probably need to download new software. That said, if you are a regular user, it is probably best to initially halt any and all transactions, at least until the situation is more clear.

If a split happens and you are a miner, you should have by now decided on which chain you’ll mine, and mine on that chain. (Of course, you can still switch at any time. You may simply want to mine the most profitable chain, for example.)

July 21st update: The 80 percent hash power activation threshold for BIP91 was reached today (UTC). This should make BIP148 obsolete. However, if a majority of hash power does not actually enforce BIP91 by August 1st, the scenario described here does still hold up.

August 2nd update: BIP148 has now activated, and so far all is going well. Miners are mining SegWit-signaling blocks-only, which is compatible with both BIP91 and BIP148, which means that all Bitcoin nodes are united on one chain. Segregated Witness (BIP141) is currently scheduled to lock-in on August 8th.

August 8th update: Segregated Witness (BIP141) is now past the point of no return for lock-in. All Bitcoin nodes are still united on one chain.

August 4: Potential Bitcoin ABC Launch

Although the exact date is not set in stone, August 4th may see the introduction of a new type of “Bitcoin”: Bitcoin ABC.

Major Bitcoin mining hardware producer Bitmain recently announced that if BIP91 does not activate before August 1st and BIP148 is showing signs of life after August 1st, it will launch a “contingency plan.” More recently, the implementation to embody this contingency plan — named “Bitcoin ABC” — was announced at the Future of Bitcoin conference.

Bitcoin ABC will share a common history with Bitcoin up until August 1st, but will, for the first couple of days after that, probably be privately mined by Bitmain. It will also include several new and incompatible protocol rules, perhaps most importantly an increased block size limit.

If you owned bitcoin at the time of split — August 1st, 00:00 UTC — you should automatically own “Bitcoin ABC” as well. But you may, in that case, need to download software to be able to send (and receive) the coins. More information will likely become available if this event occurs.

If you are a miner you should be able to mine Bitcoin ABC on August 4th. (And perhaps sooner.)

July 17th update: It now seems a bit more likely that Bitcoin ABC will launch, regardless of BIP148. This launch is scheduled for August 1st, 12:20 (PM). It may still take a couple of days before Bitcoin ABC becomes widely accessible for miners and users. At least one mining pool and exchange, China-based ViaBTC, has announced support for the coin, which it will list as "Bitcoin Cash", with the ticker "BCC".

July 21st update: Contraryto earlier reports, it appears that Bitcoin ABC will not include two-way replay protection. If you want to make sure you don't lose access to your Bitcoin ABC coins, you should not send any bitcoins (whether 148BTC or LegacyBTC) until you have "separated" your Bitcoin ABC coins. For more information, see this article. (Also note that Coinbase has explicitly stated that users will not have access to their Bitcoin ABC coins.)

August 2nd update: Bitcoin Cash (BCH), as the new cryptocurrency is now called, launched yesterday. While the project is off to a slow start when it comes to hash power and blocks, trading has opened, and it seems as if the coin could make it.

August 8th update: Bitcoin Cash (Bcash; BCH) is alive and well as an alternative cryptocurrency.

August 15: Potential BIP148 Proof-of-Work Change

While this date is not set in stone either, August 15th could see the introduction of yet another type of “Bitcoin,” which we’ll refer to as “NewPoW Bitcoin” or “NewPoWBTC.”

As a UASF, August 1st’s BIP148 fork should initially be effectuated by users — not miners. Users would start to reject any blocks that do not signal readiness for Segregated Witness (per BIP141). This should incentivize miners to follow the BIP148 chain (ideally, at least for BIP148 users, to the point where it’s the only chain left). But whether this will actually happen remains to be seen. So far, few miners have publicly indicated they will support the UASF.

If miner support on 148 Bitcoin remains low, (some of) its users may opt to implement a hard fork to change the proof-of-work algorithm. This would “fire” the existing group of miners by making their specialized ASIC mining hardware obsolete on the BIP148 chain, and could open the door for new miners — possibly re-decentralising the mining ecosystem back to home users with CPUs or GPUs. (At least temporarily.)

An open BIP148 “working group” on a channel of the "Bitcoin Core Community" Slack is currently working out the details to be proposed. But it seems that if by August 15th less than 15 percent of total hash power mines on 148 Bitcoin, this hard fork will be deployed. This would make the split with “Legacy Bitcoin” definite. It could technically also lead to another split on the 148 Bitcoin side, if some of its users decline to join the hard fork that changes the proof-of-work algorithm.

If you are a regular user and owned bitcoin at the time of the August 1st split, and you didn’t spend any until August 15th, you should now also own NewPoWBTC. If you bought or earned 148BTC between August 1st and August 15th, you should now (also) own NewPoWBTC.

But if you did spend bitcoins on any side of the split, that’s not as certain. Again, if you want to be on the safe side, don’t transact at all until the situation becomes more clear.

If you are one of the few miners that was mining on 148 Bitcoin with ASIC hardware, you may now want to point your hardware elsewhere — or shut it down completely. (This depends, of course, on whether or not it’s still profitable to mine 148BTC or anything else.)

And of course, anyone should by now be able to mine on NewPoWBTC without specialized ASIC hardware.

August 2nd update: As BIP148 has locked in and Segregated Witness seems increasingly likely to activate smoothly, there will almost certainly not be any proof-of-work change any time soon.

August 8th update: Segregated Witness (BIP141) is now past the point of return. BIP148 is virtually made obsolete, and a proof-of-work change will (almost certainly) not be needed.

Mid- to late- August: SegWit Lock In

If miners avoided a chain-split through BIP141, BIP91 or BIP148, Segregated Witness should at the latest lock in between mid-August or late August. This should be a bit a non-event if it happens through BIP91 or BIP148, as it would at this point be expected, and wouldn’t change much for anyone.

But what the lock-in means is that all SegWit-ready clients will start enforcing the new rules in the next difficulty period: after another two weeks. So if you are a regular user and would like to use the new features or want to maintain top-notch security, you now have two weeks to upgrade to software that enforces SegWit.

If a chain-split is not avoided, the situation could become far more complex. By mid-August, there could potentially be one, two, three or maybe even four “Bitcoins”: “148 Bitcoin”, “NewPoW Bitcoin”, “Bitcoin ABC,” as well as “Legacy Bitcoin”.

At the time of writing this article, it’s hard to say how best to deal with this situation. For a regular user, it’s always best to hold onto your private keys, and it’s probably best not to transact at all until the situation resolves in some way or another. (For more information, see this article.)

For a miner, it’s probably best to just mine the most profitable chain.

August 2nd update: Segregated Witness lock-in is currently scheduled for August 8th. (The exact time and date depends on how fast new Bitcoin blocks are found.)

Late August to Mid-September: SegWit Activation

If a chain-split is avoided by miners, SegWit should activate around this time. If you’re running a compatible client by now, you can begin to enjoy the new features while maintaining top-notch security.

If a chain-split is not avoided, the situation is (still) too complex to predict.

August 2nd update: Segregated Witness activation is currently scheduled for around August 23th.

Late October to Mid-November: SegWit2x Hard Fork (see update)

Toward the end of this year (though potentially even up to early 2018), the hard fork part of SegWit2x should take place. To be exact, this hard fork activates on BTC1 clients three months after SegWit locks in. This activation means that a “base block” bigger than 1 megabyte should be mined, which makes BTC1 clients incompatible with all Bitcoin clients that do not have the hard fork code implemented.

At this point in time, it seems almost certain that not everyone will change their software to support this hard fork. Bitcoin’s development community in particular has almost unanumously rejected the proposal, while several companies have indicated their intentions not to support the change, and not all users seem on board either. As such, this could lead to another chain-split. (Theoretically, this could lead to the fifth “Bitcoin,” though it seems very unlikely there would still be four "Bitcoins" by then in the first place.

How to deal with this situation as a regular users will be announced on Bitcoin Magazine closer to the actual date.

If you are a miner and you were only running the BTC1 client to help activate SegWit with no intention to support the hard fork, you should make sure to switch back to a non-BTC1 client before this hard fork takes place.

July 17th update: As per the implementation of BTC1, this "2x hard fork" should actually activate three months after SegWit activation — not three months after (BIP91) lock in. This moves the hard fork date back by about a month, closer to late November or mid-December.

August 2nd update: With Segregated Witness activation currently scheduled around August 23th, the "2x hard fork" should happen around November 23th. (The exact time and date depends on how fast new Bitcoin blocks are found. Over a timespan of several months, this could possibly deviate by more than a week from November 22nd.)

August 8th update: With Segregated Witness past the point of no return for lock-in, the "2x hard fork" should happen around November 23th. (The exact time and date depends on how fast new Bitcoin blocks are found. Over a timespan of several months, this could possibly deviate by more than a week from November 22nd.) Apart from Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash (Bcash) the "2x hard fork" could lead to a third type of "Bitcoin." How likely this is to actually happen remains to be seen.

Getting Started With Segsit2x

Announced on May 23rd, The New York Agreement (NYA) is the contract between the Bitcoin miners who represent the majority of Bitcoin’s hashing power, and a group of over 50 other businesses, to implement the Bitcoin software upgrade Segwit2x.

While it’s no secret that the NYA isn’t loved by everyone in the Bitcoin community, a series of events on October 24th left many wondering if the agreement might unravel entirely — leaving the project with no path forward to achieve its goal of upgrading Bitcoin and increasing its block size.

The troubles started on Monday morning with a blog post from NYA signatory and major backer Coinbase announcing how they and their subsidiary exchange GDAX would name the split blockchains resulting from the Segwit2x Bitcoin hard fork. “Following the fork,” said Coinbase communications director David Farmer, “Coinbase will continue referring to the current Bitcoin blockchain as Bitcoin (BTC) and the forked blockchain as Bitcoin2x (B2X).”

Bitfinex and a few exchanges that did not sign the NYA had previously announced similar naming conventions, while others have said they would not support the Segwit2x altcoin in any way. However, among those who signed the NYA, Coinbase currently claims 11.4 million Bitcoin-using customers — easily making it one of the most powerful signatories and an influential precedent-setter.

What made this announcement particularly important, however, is that by declaring in its naming scheme that the existing Bitcoin blockchain would remain BTC, Coinbase was essentially extinguishing any hope that the Segwit2x blockchain would be an upgrade replacement for the existing blockchain, and in doing so were positioning Segwit2x as just another dividend altcoin like bitcoin cash (BCH) or bitcoin gold (BTG). Segwit2x’s lead developer, Jeff Garzik himself stated on the Segwit2x development project that this was never the goal of the NYA.

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For added context, it’s worth pointing out that the root of the NYA’s problems began much earlier. From the very start there were no Bitcoin Core developers who supported the Segwit2x fork, mainly because they claimed that the plan was too rushed and risky for a system that protects tens of billions of dollars worth of value.

Since May, nine NYA signatories have also dropped out for similar reasons — while others have moved over to support the bitcoin cash altcoin. Then on 11 October, the independently-operated Bitcoin.org website where Bitcoin's primary software is distributed from issued a warning to all Bitcoin users that the fork could cause a major disruption and potentially put bitcoin holders' investments at risk.

Fast forward to Monday, and things got even more interesting. Soon after the Coinbase announcement, news broke that Garzik had been working on a competing cryptocurrency called Metronome during the time he has been working on Segwit2x. Garzik says he plans to release Metronome in December via an ICO sale because “bitcoin faces existential threats from forks, developer drama and so on. Knowing what we know and having a clean sheet of paper, we asked what would we build and the answer is this.”

Soon after this, Coinbase founder and CEO Brian Armstrong had second thoughts about his communications director’s explicit announcement the day before, tweeting: “Apologies our initial post was not as clear as it could have been about what happens after the fork ... we'll call the chain with the most accumulated difficulty bitcoin. Important for us to remain neutral and let the market decide.”

If one were to ask the community as a whole what it wants, there’s clearly no consensus over what should determine which blockchain becomes the ‘real’ Bitcoin after the fork. Many feel, for example, that Bitcoin is inherently tied to the core development team, since they designed the software and work hard to keep it updated. Others believe that it is the software client located in the Bitcoin directory at Github, which is how most open source projects define ownership.

Another position promoted by some outspoken bitcoin miners and many NYA signatories, is that the name Bitcoin is the ‘prize’ awarded to the blockchain that accumulates the majority of mining hashpower. This opinion is echoed by many Bitcoin business executives that are Segwit2x supporters, including Shapeshift CEO Erik Voorhees. “It will be Bitcoin if it earns the highest hash power and highest price,” he says. “The title will be bestowed in the marketplace, derived from its constituent pieces of miner, economic, and user support.”

Initially, the signatories of the NYA agreed on a plan that would have included over 95 percent of the Bitcoin mining hashrate. However, with recent events that number has slipped noticeably. Major mining pool F2Pool, currently responsible for 7.3% of bitcoin’s total hashrate, dropped out of the NYA at the end of August.

Further, over 3,000 miners moved from other pools to join the Slush Pool last week, which is the only major pool that lets individual miners decide for themselves which fork they’d like to support. The move saw Slush Pool rise to become the 5th largest pool with 8.5% of the total Bitcoin hashrate — and only 6% of its miners are signaling for Segwit2x, with 75% signaling for the legacy chain.

So what does this mean? Added together, that makes at least 14% who will definitely be mining for legacy Bitcoin, while the Segwit2x chain is likely to have 78% — minus those mining for bitcoin cash (a number that infamously varies day by day). Another 9% are undeclared. As a result, with 14% or more of the mining hashrate, legacy Bitcoin’s blockchain isn’t necessarily doomed. It will still likely result in slower transactions and higher fees at the time of the fork, but it may well hold its value long enough to convince the miners to come back.

Certainly this the view of many current Bitcoin holders — as was evidenced by the price on Bitfinex and a few other exchanges that began trading futures tokens based on the Segwit2x chain split — allowing bitcoin holders to speculate on the eventual price of the two coins. The result? At press time, Bitfinex lists the token that represents Segwit2x trading for only 14% of the price of the corresponding Bitcoin token. At OKEx, the Segwit2x’s futures token is trading slightly lower at 13%. For those who believe the market is the ultimate decider of which coin is the real bitcoin, the answer is already clear.

Last but not least, it would be foolhardy to overlook the exchanges, since a unified position between them would drive some certainty into the marketplace. Unfortunately, that won’t be happening anytime soon because at least 10 exchanges including the popular derivatives exchange BitMex, have declared that they will maintain legacy Bitcoin as BTC on their platforms. A statement on the matter from Bitwala is typical of the sentiment of many exchanges: "We will not actively fork away from what we view as ‘bitcoin’, which is the chain that is supported by the current Core dev team."

At the time of writing, the hard fork for Segwit2x is still projected to occur on November 16. Unless enough NYA signers back down in time cancelling the fork entirely, we may see bitcoin’s first contentious hard fork at that time.

How To Get A Segsit2x Wallet?

Prior to August 1, 2017, miners activated the backward-compatible SegWit soft fork. This upgrade to the Bitcoin protocol increased the transactional capacity of blocks, fixed a serious bug known as transaction malleability, and paved the way for Lightning Networks and further improvements.

On August 1, the backward-incompatible Bitcoin Cash occurred. Bcash split from the main Bitcoin to create an altcoin with 8-megabyte blocks and no SegWit implementation. All Bitcoin balances held at fork time were credited an equal amount of Bcash (BCH).

On October 24, the backward-incompatible Bitcoin Gold hard fork occurred. Bitcoin Gold hard forked away from the main Bitcoin blockchain to create an altcoin with an altered, ASIC-resistant mining algorithm known as Equihash. All Bitcoin balances held at fork time will be credited with an equal amount of Bgold (BTG) when the Bgold network launches (presumably in the near future).

The SegWit2x (also known as S2X/B2X) backward-incompatible hard fork is scheduled to occur around November 16. B2X will fork from the Bitcoin blockchain to produce an altcoin with 2-megabyte blocks and SegWit support. All Bitcoin balances held at fork time will be credited with an equal amount of B2X.

You can download Segwit2 Wallets in their official website :

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Segsit2x Resources

Media

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How To Buy Segsit2x?

If you want to trade SegWit2x now, you can send your existing bitcoins to any of the above-mentioned exchanges (Bitfinex, HitBTC, or Exrates) to split them into Bitcoin and B2X futures tokens. This option is for advanced traders only; if you go all in on B2X futures and the fork doesn’t happen, you’ll lose everything. Study the terms offered by these exchanges closely before considering this option; numerous catches and complications apply.

The Easy Way to Get B2X

The easiest (as opposed to the safest) way for Bitcoin holders to get SegWit2x coins is to send bitcoins to a supporting exchange before the fork occurs. Only bitcoins held by the exchange at the time of the fork will be credited with SegWit2x.

The following exchanges will credit Bitcoin deposits with B2X:

These exchanges may credit users with B2X if they deem it safe to do so:

These exchanges will not credit users with B2X:

The Safe Way to Get B2X

Keeping coins on an exchange is something we ordinarily recommend against—if you don’t control the private key, you don’t control the bitcoins. Exchanges may contravene their statements, fail technically, go bankrupt, or get hacked, among other possibilities, and all of these possibilities could lead to losses. The likelihood of an exchange experiencing problems increases during a disruptive event, such as the forthcoming fork.

The safest way to get your B2X coins is to keep your bitcoins in your personal wallet and only claim them via your wallet’s officially recommended process.

The following wallets have made clear statements about their B2X support:

How To Earn Segsit2x?

Whether you choose to rely on an exchange to credit you with B2X or claim it via your own Bitcoin wallet, if you intend to trade it, then you’ll need to keep it in or send it to a supporting exchange. Not all exchanges that issue B2X to users will offer a market in it.

The following exchanges have stated that they’ll offer B2X trading:

International Bitcoin Communities

All the following communities, representing tens if not hundreds of thousands of users, have voiced their opposition to SegWit2x:

What Is Segsit2x Mining?

SegWit2X mining is based on the Dark Gravity Wave difficulty readjustment algorithm which is a big improvement over the traditional KGW. Dark Gravity Wave (DGW) is implemented in SegWit2X in version 3.0 and it addresses certain flaws such as the time warp attack known in the KGW algorithm. It makes use of multiple exponential moving averages and simple move averages to achieve a smoother readjustment mechanism.

We could go even further and share with you the formula that is implemented as the mechanism to readjust difficulty - 2222222/ (((Difficulty+2600)/9)^2). This is the best testament to the fact that the Blockchain specialists nourishing SegWit2X Bitcoin project are true professionals and top-sawyers.

Quite a few discussions regarding SegWit2x are taking place as we speak. A lot of enthusiasts assume this blockchain will gain traction. That is mainly due to the current level of mining support for this concept. However, Just because there is so much intent to signal doesn’t mean S2X will become the new Bitcoin all of a sudden. There is a very long way to go before that can be the case.

SegWit2x has proven to be a rather interesting creature in the world of Bitcoin. This latest hard fork wants to combine SegWit with larger blocks. Whether or not this will be a successful version, remains to be seen. There is a lot of support from mining pools, by the look of things. More specifically, pools signal the intent to support this new solution. That doesn’t mean they will all switch over to this blockchain in the future, though.

One determining factor will be the profitability factor. Right now, SegWit2x is one-third as profitable as mining Bitcoin. Moreover, a lot of coins will be distributed to BTC holders during the initial stage. There will be plenty of coins getting dumped across exchanges, that much is rather evident. This will push the mining profitability of this new currency down even further. There is no reason for miners to automatically switch over to the new chain if it generates less income.

It is true the world’s largest mining pools all signal SegWit2x. Miners stick with these pools because they still mine Bitcoin right now first and foremost. This initial “support” is no indication of the miners sticking around when they make less money. We have seen the same issue affecting Bitcoin Cash as well. Miners will go after the chain which offers the most profitability. In the case of BCH, there is an interesting difficulty adjustment which can make it more profitable to mine. SegWit2x will not have such an EDA, which is a good thing.

Assuming the mining power would shift, though, things will get pretty ugly for Bitcoin. It would render the current blockchain seemingly useless as the next network block would take hours, if not days, to be discovered.That is not a situation anyone is looking forward to, for obvious reasons. It remains unclear what the future will hold in this regard, though. SegWit2x will not become the new Bitcoin chain by default, that much is certain.

Latest Segsit2x News

The Official Segwit2X Mining Pool Created

segwit2

A lot of miners supported Segwit2X fork, and now a lot of pools have been formed. Since we can’t guarantee the reliability of these pools, we organized the official Segwit2x mining pool. We take responsibility for the security and reliability of mining in this particular pool, excluding the possibility of payment terms breach by third-party organizers. You can work with all other pools at your own risk, but we are not responsible for the actions of their organizers.

Join the official Segwit2X pool following this link:

http://pool.b2x-segwit.io/getting_started