Bitcoin Just Surged Past $8,000. Here's What's Causing the Spike

After dipping below $6,000 earlier this month, the price of cryptocurrency Bitcoin surged as high as $8,040 Friday on one of the world’s largest exchanges, Bitfinex.

The globally weighted average-high Bitcoin prices were slightly lower, sitting at $7,998. Bitcoin prices have pared their gains since, falling to $7,829 on Bitfinex, close to the globally weighted average.

Still, Friday’s surge in Bitcoin’s price comes amid growing institutional investor interest as well as an expected “hard fork” Friday that will introduce a new cryptocurrency for Bitcoin owners.

Established investors and companies are increasingly venturing into the wild west world of cryptocurrency in recent months. Payments company Square began allowing select customers buy and sell Bitcoin earlier this week. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange said it would offer Bitcoin futures by the end of the year, potentially opening the coin to a host of institutional investors. Coinbase has taken aim at hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds with a new custodian service.

The aforementioned hard fork, too, is contributing to Bitcoin’s rise. The leaders of the SegWit2x hard fork faction said just before Bitcoin’s price slid below $6,000 that they would suspend a proposal to increase the size of Bitcoin blocks from 1MB to 2MB. But major Bitcoin exchanges say today that that they still expect a small group of miners to go forward with the SegWit2x proposal, leading to the creation of a separate network and cryptocurrency.

“Despite these developments, a small number of miners may attempt to go forward with a fork,” David Farmer, Coinbase’s director of communications, wrote in a blog post Friday. The fork, he added, is expected to occur between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. Pacific Time on November 17.

Coinbase and Coinbase-owned GDAX said they would suspend deposits and withdrawals at 5 a.m. Friday EST, though trades will not be impacted.

The thinking goes that part of Bitcoin’s price jump in recent months has been thanks to anticipation surrounding the SegWit2x fork. As a hard fork results in the creation of a new cryptocurrency, each Bitcoin investor receives an equal number of whatever the new coin may be. For example, in an August hard fork, Bitcoin investors received Bitcoin Cash in addition to their existing cryptocurrency funds.

In anticipation of a similar windfall, investors may have bought into SegWit2x ahead of its fork. But due to SegWit2x’s limited support now, Coinbase and GDAX say it’s likely that they won’t allow Bitcoin 2x trading or withdrawals. If other exchanges take a similar stance, investors will have less incentive to buy in before the split.

Still, interest in the new coin is still there. Tuur Demeester, Editor-in-Chief at Adamant Research, noted that the futures market is predicting a $225 value for the coin. But that’s not quite the same level of enthusiasm that was around before SegWit2x’s suspension. Back then, it once traded at $1,253.

B2X hard-fork is scheduled in about 3 hours. Despite endorsement withdrawals, the futures market implies a value per coin of $225, or a market cap of nearly $4 billion. #segwit2x https://t.co/QNuesQGjk0 pic.twitter.com/LpeXMTgpqj

— Tuur Demeester (@TuurDemeester) November 17, 2017

Bitcoin Cash, meanwhile, is trading up 8% Friday, at $1,115.

Breaking News: Segwit2x Fork Cancelled

Mike Belshe has published a blog post indicating that the planned Segwit2x hard fork will not be taking place. The markets have responded dramatically, with the price quickly setting a new all-time high of approximately $7900 USD.

It Has Been Revealed That the Segwit2x Fork Will Not Take Place

Bitgo CEO, Mike Belshe has published a post indicating that the contentious Segwit2x hard fork scheduled for this month will not occur due to a lack of community support.

The post states that “the Segwit2x effort began in May with a simple purpose: to increase the blocksize and improve Bitcoin scalability. At the time, the Bitcoin community was in crisis after nearly 3 years of heavy debate, and consensus for Segwit seemed like a distant mirage with only 30% support among miners.” Belshe adds that “Segwit2x found its first success in August, as it broke the deadlock and quickly led to Segwit’s successful activation.”

Belshe states “our goal has always been a smooth upgrade for Bitcoin. Although we strongly believe in the need for a larger blocksize, there is something we believe is even more important: keeping the community together.” Belshe concedes “it is clear that we have not built sufficient consensus for a clean blocksize upgrade at this time. Continuing on the current path could divide the community and be a setback to Bitcoin’s growth. This was never the goal of Segwit2x.”

The Markets Have Responded With a Dramatic Surge Into New All-Time Highs

Belshe predicts that “as fees rise on the blockchain, we believe it will eventually become obvious that on-chain capacity increases are necessary. When that happens, we hope the community will come together and find a solution, possibly with a blocksize increase. Until then, we are suspending our plans for the upcoming 2MB upgrade.”

The markets have responded with a dramatic surge into new all-time highs. Following the announcement, bitcoin saw a spike of approximately $500 USD in less than one hour -signifying a highly bullish reaction to the news. As of this writing, the price of bitcoin is consolidating above the preceding all-time high at approximately $7700 USD, after having established a new all-time high of $7900 USD.

What are your thoughts on the news that the Segwit2x fork will not happen? Share your opinion in the comments section below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock

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Bitcoin's Coming Split: What You Need to Know

(Important update: The leaders of the SegWit2X faction announced on Wednesday, November 8 they would suspend their plan to split bitcoin in mid-November.)

Bitcoin has faced turmoil in the past but nothing like this. In two weeks, a massive fight taking place among bitcoin insiders could produce a ruinous schism—undermining the integrity of digital currency and threatening its sky-high value.

The fight is over a so-called fork in bitcoin’s software, known as SegWit2x, that will create two competing versions of the currency and lead to disagreement over the “real” bitcoin. There’s even a battle over who gets to use the popular BTC ticker symbol.

The fork will also mean a payout to existing bitcoin holders, though any windfall could be overshadowed by larger turmoil. To understand what’s at stake, here’s a plain English Q&A to explain the controversy.

Why is bitcoin going to split?

There is a disagreement between key stakeholders over how to update the core software that runs bitcoin. You can learn more about the technical details below, but the crux of the fight is over whether to double the size of bitcoin blocks.

The blocks, which are added every 10 minutes, serve as a record of all bitcoin transactions to create a permanent blockchain ledger. The current controversy means there is likely to be two bitcoin blockchains—one that uses smaller 1MB blocks and one that uses bigger 2MB blocks—and temporary uncertainty over which is the “real” bitcoin.

While bitcoin has experienced these sort of forks in the past (most notably with the creation this summer of rival currency “Bitcoin Cash,”) the market has never regarded such splits as a replacement for the original bitcoin. This time could be different.

When will the fork happen?

It is supposed to take place soon. This website offers a more precise moment —specifically Nov. 16 at 5:42 am—based on the number of blocks being added to the bitcoin blockchain. The fork is supposed to go into effect for block number 494784. (Once again, technical details on blocks and forks are further below).

Who is supporting the split?

The main advocates for the bigger blocks, aka B2X, are consortiums of bitcoin miners who use specialized computer rigs to compile transactions on the blockchain—and earn bitcoins (currently valued at around $7,400) while doing so. They argue the bigger blocks are needed to accommodate the rapid growth of the bitcoin network, and to reduce the rising transaction fees that have come with this growth.

The mining consortiums are being backed by many of the companies that provide the financial eco-system that supports bitcoin. These include certain exchanges, wallet providers, market makers, and storage vaults. The positions of these companies, however, is inclined to shift based on the market and popular sentiment.

Who is opposing it?

Opposition is led by a group of developers who maintain the core software that has so far defined bitcoin. Many of them consider the proposed fork as a corporate takeover of bitcoin, and say there are other solutions to accommodate bigger blocks. Here is how Samson Mow, the CSO of the blockchain company Blockstream, describes the big block advocates:

“[Big block] ringleaders are still pushing for a hard-fork now purely due to ego and escalation of commitment at this point. If you look at the history of contentious forks, starting from Bitcoin XT in 2015, it’s the same group of people. Either they are technically incapable of conceive of scaling methods other than block sizes increases, or they are trying to set Bitcoin on a path of centralization by making it more difficult for people to run nodes.”

The developers are supported by certain companies and mining groups, and by many amateur bitcoin enthusiasts who get together at meet-ups worldwide.

What version of bitcoin will prevail?

No one is really sure. If most miners get behind the proposed split—and stay behind it—that will likely make the big block version the de facto official version of bitcoin.

But if the market continues to place more value on the original bitcoin, miners could get cold feet and go back to the small version if it is more profitable. Indeed, for now, certain futures markets are predicting the price of the original bitcoin will be significantly higher post-split than the big block version (it’s unclear how reliable these are).

It’s also likely that big exchanges like Coinbase will serve as king-makers after the fork, in part by deciding which version of the currency gets to be “BTC”— the ticker symbol everyone currently uses to define bitcoin. For now, most exchanges are not openly supporting one bitcoin version or the other. (You can read a rundown on where the 20 biggest ones stand here). Here is what Greg Dwyer of the exchange BitMEX has to say:

“There is a lot of passion from both sides in the community as to why we should have a fork and as to why we should not, especially now with Bitcoin Cash (and its ability to mine larger blocks), a number of Bitcoiners do not see the need for 2X anymore. With bitcoin at [its current valuation of $7,400], there is a lot of money at stake to ensure the coin you support succeeds.”

How long will it take to clear up?

That’s also unclear, though it’s probably best for bitcoin if a winner emerges sooner than later. A prolonged battle could spread confusion among investors and trigger a crisis of confidence in the booming crypto-currency market.

Meanwhile, some fear the big block version of bitcoin will fail to contain adequate technical measures (known as replay protection) to ensure transactions on both chains don’t become muddled. This would likewise spread uncertainty.

Finally, there is speculation that, even if the big block version of the chain proves less profitable, some big miners will keep mining it anyway in order to impair the small version. If that sounds like civil war, you’re right, and the fallout could be ugly.

What about those payments for current bitcoin holders?

If the big block version of bitcoin goes forward, it will contain an exact replica of the existing bitcoin blockchain—including a record of who owns all of the existing bitcoins. This also means every existing bitcoin holder will also hold those bitcoins on the new chain.

Coinbase and other big exchanges have already confirmed they will accommodate both versions of the chain, meaning a client who holds five bitcoins will also soon hold five B2X (or whatever they call the new version). This is potentially good news for bitcoin holders because, hey, free money! They will wake up with digital assets they didn’t own the day before.

Those waiting on a windfall should, however, take note of two caveats. First, there is uncertainty about how much liquidity there will be for both versions of bitcoin after the fork (note that Bitcoin Cash, which arrived after a fork in August, is fairly illiquid). Second, the arrival of B2X bitcoin could trigger a crisis of confidence in the digital currency market—and cause the combined value of both currencies to fall below today’s bitcoin price.

So what are the technical details behind the B2X update?

Before explaining B2X, it’s helpful to realize bitcoin works a bit like the operating systems in your iPhone or Android phone: Every so often the developers push a code update containing features or security updates for everyone to install.

Typically, bitcoin miners and others install the updates without fanfare and carry on. If they don’t, it’s not a big deal since the updates are backward compatible—meaning new and old versions of bitcoin software can recognize each other, including the all-important blockchain transactions.

The B2X update, which aims to increase the size of a bitcoin block from one megabyte to two, is different. It involves a “hard fork” that will create incompatible versions of the existing blockchain. To use the phone analogy again, imagine an iOS update that resulted in an iPhone user only being able to message other iPhones that had also added the update.

Finally, note that the technical measure itself—doubling the block size—is rejected by core bitcoin developers as necessary to accommodate the transaction growth on the network. These developers point out a recent technical solution (known as “SegWit”) that fits more transactions on a block is already in place, and that other easy-to-implement congestion solutions will arrive soon.

Where can I learn more about the B2X fork?

This Q&A is only a high-level overview of the coming split. If you want more, Bitcoin Magazine is an authoritative source and has a helpful guide to B2X and other forks. Meanwhile, a recent Forbes feature by bitcoin maven Laura Shin offers a detailed look at the people and factions driving the current crisis. If you’re curious about how exactly forks work (including soft versus hard forks), this is a useful piece.

Finally, Twitter is your best source for up-to-date information about the fork. Some useful people to follow include bitcoin veterans like Ryan Selkis (aka Two-Bit Idiot), developer Jameson Lopp, economist Tuur Demeester, and small block advocate Samson Mow. It’s also worth watching the tweets of Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong since his company is likely to affect the final outcome.

This is part of Fortune’s new initiative, The Ledger, a trusted news source at the intersection of tech and finance. For more on The Ledger, click here.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Samson Mow as a developer.

Bitcoin.org to denounce "Segwit2x"

On 2017-10-11 at noon (UTC), Bitcoin.org is planning to publish a banner on every page of the site warning users about the risks of using services that will default to the so-called Segwit2x 1 (S2X) contentious hard fork. S2X companies will be called out by name. To ensure that we only warn users against companies that will actually put user deposits at risk, we urge all companies to publicly clarify their stance before the above date, either by a highly-visible public statement or by commenting on Bitcoin.org issue #1835 (or by doing both).

In particular, we need to know that:

The company will not under any circumstances list вЂњSegwit2xвЂќ as вЂњBTCвЂќ and/or вЂњBitcoinвЂќ. Note that Bitcoin is not ruled by miners, and miner actions cannot be used as a justification to redefine Bitcoin.
The company will not by default do anything that would deprive users of their bitcoins (by eg. using S2X software without addressing replay attacks 2 , selling user bitcoins automatically, crediting BTC deposits only as S2X deposits, etc.). Providing access to S2X-coins is acceptable, however.
The company will continue to provide normal service to Bitcoin (ie. non-S2X) users.

Although bitcoin.org condemns contentious hard fork attempts such as S2X, we consider it tolerable for companies to support S2X in ways that do not contradict the above three points, such as by supporting both Bitcoin and S2X simultaneously as separate cryptocurrencies.

By default, we will be using the following list of companies known to support S2X in our warning:

US Search Mobile Web

Welcome to the Yahoo Search forum! We’d love to hear your ideas on how to improve Yahoo Search.

The Yahoo product feedback forum now requires a valid Yahoo ID and password to participate.

You are now required to sign-in using your Yahoo email account in order to provide us with feedback and to submit votes and comments to existing ideas. If you do not have a Yahoo ID or the password to your Yahoo ID, please sign-up for a new account.

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Improve your services

Your search engine does not find any satisfactory results for searches. It is too weak. Also, the server of bing is often off

I created a yahoo/email account long ago but I lost access to it; can y'all delete all my yahoo/yahoo account except for my newest YaAccount

I want all my lost access yahoo account 'delete'; Requesting supporter for these old account deletion; 'except' my Newest yahoo account this Account don't delete! Because I don't want it interfering my online 'gamble' /games/business/data/ Activity , because the computer/security program might 'scure' my Information and detect theres other account; then secure online activities/ business securing from my suspicion because of my other account existing will make the security program be 'Suspicious' until I'm 'secure'; and if I'm gambling online 'Depositing' then I need those account 'delete' because the insecurity 'Suspicioun' will program the casino game 'Programs' securities' to be 'secure' then it'll be 'unfair' gaming and I'll lose because of the insecurity can be a 'Excuse'. Hope y'all understand my explanation!

chithidio@Yahoo.com

i dont know what happened but i can not search anything.

Golf handicap tracker, why can't I get to it?

Why do I get redirected on pc and mobile device?

Rahyaftco@yahoo.com

RYAN RAHSAD BELL literally means

Question on a link

In the search for Anaïs Nin, one of the first few links shows a picture of a man. Why? Since Nin is a woman, I can’t figure out why. Can you show some reason for this? Who is he? If you click on the picture a group of pictures of Nin and no mention of that man. Is it an error?

Repair the Yahoo Search App.

Yahoo Search App from the Google Play Store on my Samsung Galaxy S8+ phone stopped working on May 18, 2018.

I went to the Yahoo Troubleshooting page but the article that said to do a certain 8 steps to fix the problem with Yahoo Services not working and how to fix the problem. Of course they didn't work.

I contacted Samsung thru their Samsung Tutor app on my phone. I gave their Technican access to my phone to see if there was a problem with my phone that stopped the Yahoo Search App from working. He went to Yahoo and I signed in so he could try to fix the Yahoo Search App not working. He also used another phone, installed the app from the Google Play Store to see if the app would do any kind of search thru the app. The Yahoo Search App just wasn't working.

I also had At&t try to help me because I have UVERSE for my internet service. My internet was working perfectly. Their Technical Support team member checked the Yahoo Search App and it wouldn't work for him either.

We can go to www.yahoo.com and search for any topic or website. It's just the Yahoo Search App that won't allow anyone to do web searches at all.

I let Google know that the Yahoo Search App installed from their Google Play Store had completely stopped working on May 18, 2018.

I told them that Yahoo has made sure that their Yahoo members can't contact them about anything.

I noticed that right after I accepted the agreement that said Oath had joined with Verizon I started having the problem with the Yahoo Search App.
No matter what I search for or website thru the Yahoo Search App it says the following after I searched for
www.att.com.

WEBPAGE NOT AVAILABLE
This webpage at gttp://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geJGq8BbkrgALEMMITE5jylu=X3oDMTEzcTjdWsyBGNvbG8DYmyxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDTkFQUEMwxzEEc2VjA3NylRo=10/Ru=https%3a%2f%2fwww.att.att.com%2f/Rk=2/Es=plkGNRAB61_XKqFjTEN7J8cXA-
could not be loaded because:
net::ERR_CLEARTEXT_NOT_PERMITTED

I tried to search for things like www.homedepot.com. The same thing happened. It would say WEBPAGE NOT AVAILABLE. The only thing that changed were all the upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols.
Then it would again say
could not be loaded because:
net::ERR_CLEARTEXT_NOT_PERMITTED

This is the same thing that happened when Samsung and At&t tried to do any kind of searches thru the Yahoo Search App.

Yahoo needs to fix the problem with their app.

Yahoo Search App from the Google Play Store on my Samsung Galaxy S8+ phone stopped working on May 18, 2018.

I went to the Yahoo Troubleshooting page but the article that said to do a certain 8 steps to fix the problem with Yahoo Services not working and how to fix the problem. Of course they didn't work.

Explainer: What Is SegWit2x and What Does It Mean for Bitcoin?

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:

It would enact the long-proposed code optimization Segregated Witness (SegWit), which alters how some data is stored on the network.
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.

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.
Owing to this limit, transactions take longer to approve during times of heavy use.
As all users pay a fee to miners to make transactions, this limitation on space has increased average fee costs.
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.

It was not put forward by, nor has it been endorsed by, Bitcoin Core, the network's main open-source developer team.
It doesn't introduce new ideas so much as combine those previously proposed by various developers in a new way.

As outlined above, these ideas include:

SegWit: An optimization proposed by Bitcoin Core developer Pieter Wuille at the end of 2015, SegWit increases the volume of transactions that fit into each block without raising the block size parameter. Specifically, it also removes transaction malleability, an issue that once resolved could lead to a number of network improvements. You can read more about the technical specifics here and here.
A block size increase: The change, long-proposed as a scaling solution, simply involves updating the software rules to allow for 2MB blocks. A few alternative bitcoin implementations (Bitcoin XT, Bitcoin Classic and Bitcoin Unlimited) emerged with the goal of increasing bitcoin's block size parameter. But none have yet reached the necessary threshold of support.

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.

Most of the network's larger mining pools
Bitcoin startups like Coinbase, BitPay and Blockchain
Notable developers, including former lead maintainer of Bitcoin Core, Gavin Andresen.

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

Still, others oppose the plan, including:

A few businesses (including Bitrated and Bitonic)
Many node operators and bitcoin users
Nearly all Bitcoin Core developers responsible for maintaining the software.

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:

The mining pools that pledged support for SegWit2x follow through by the end of July, and the SegWit portion of the proposal is activated on the network.
The proposal doesn't get that support, and the change triggers a domino effect that, worst case, leads to a network split into two competing bitcoin assets.

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:

With enough support, bitcoin upgraded to SegWit2x will work normally, and users will not likely experience any service disruptions.
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.

A more detailed version of the SegWit2x scaling timeline, and the potential ramifications, can be found on Bitcoin Magazine.

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.

Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which acted as organizer for the SegWit2x proposal and has an ownership stake in Coinbase and BitPay.

Dominoes image via Shutterstock

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

Bitcoin Just Surged Past $8,000. Here's What's Causing the Spike

After dipping below $6,000 earlier this month, the price of cryptocurrency Bitcoin surged as high as $8,040 Friday on one of the world’s largest exchanges, Bitfinex.

Coinbase and Coinbase-owned GDAX said they would suspend deposits and withdrawals at 5 a.m. Friday EST, though trades will not be impacted.

— Tuur Demeester (@TuurDemeester) November 17, 2017

Bitcoin Cash, meanwhile, is trading up 8% Friday, at $1,115.

The Bitcoin Scaling Countdown: Miners Begin Running Segwit2x Software

It seems July 17 has initiated the beginning steps towards Segwit2x activation as the code has been released and miners who supported the “New York Agreement” (NYA) have started running the new BTC1 software.

Miners Begin Running the New Segwit2x Software

As the price of bitcoin dropped to new lows this weekend, some bitcoin proponents were patiently waiting for the promised BTC1 software. Now it seems in a short period of time the bitcoin ‘community’ may see the protocol Segregated Witness (Segwit) activated as the mining community has begun to signal BIP91 . The proposal BIP91 is a combination of Segwit2x and BIP148. The version 1.14.4 code has been pushed to the repository by the Segwit2x working group, and a few mining pools have already started running the protocol. The China-based Bitmain technologies announced their support via Twitter by stating;

All of our bitcoin mining pools will start running the new Segwit2x software today

Other mining pools signaling and mining BIP91 blocks include Bixin, Antpool, BTC.com, Bitfury, and Bitclub so far. Now spectators are waiting for other pools like BTCC, F2pool, Slush, and a few others to join. Back in June Bitcoin.com reported on how a vast majority of the hashrate was signaling their initial support for Segwit2x. Miners running the new BTC1 software and currently signaling BIP91 means that if enough hashrate reaches over 80 percent and continues for a 336 block period, Segwit will “lock in”. If all is successful, this will then lead to another 336 block period that will activate the Segwit protocol on the main chain.

Mining pools mining BIP91 blocks on July 17, 2017.

Bitcoin Community Sentiment

It’s still a bit early and hard to gauge the overall sentiment of bitcoiners, but there are definitely a lot of individuals on forums and social media who support the Segwit2x plan. For instance, Fred Wilson, managing partner at Union Square Ventures revealed he favored Segwit2x adoption on July 17 via the investor’s blog.

“I am for the Segwit2x proposal and hope that we see it broadly adopted later this month,” explains Wilson. “There is a chance that doesn’t happen, and a user activated soft fork (UASF) could be used to force Segwit into the market. I personally hope that a user activated soft fork doesn’t happen as it would create a lot of turbulence.”

An explanation of BIP91.

Rootstock Chief Scientist, Sergio Demian Lerner also states his opinion of the Segwit2x compromise revealing he doesn’t believe the intention is to “fire core programmers,” which is one of the conspiracies that has been spread around the community.

“In my humble opinion the New York Agreement wanted to start from Bitcoin Core 0.14 because the group wants core to keep leading Bitcoin,” explains the Rootstock developer and initial creator of the Segwit2x proposal.

It doesn’t try to be the next core — If NYA intention was to dump Core, they would have started from BU or Bitcoin Classic or they would have removed the witness discount

Further Sergio Demian Lerner details that he knows Segwit isn’t perfect but he doesn’t think perfection is obtainable anyway.

“I audited Segwit in 2016. Found problems. Code far from perfect. HOWEVER I DO support Segwit because I don’t believe in perfection,” says the Rootstock engineer. “You have to know the actual code in detail to say you know Segwit. That’s the problem with Segwit. That’s a community fault.”

Many Others Just Want This All to Be Over

There are still those who vehemently disagree with the progression of BTC1 and are showing sole support for either UASF or UAHF, vowing never to compromise. However, gauging sentiment via Twitter or Reddit forums is a horrible metric, and the only things that matters now in this debate are the actions from the network’s participants, rather than mere internet chatter.

People are also discussing the next step of the Segwit2x plan after the Segregated Witness protocol is implemented, which is the 2MB hard fork. The hard fork subject is also a contentious topic, and people are wondering if NYA participants will still support the hard fork after Segwit gets implemented. If Segwit2x continues to be agreed upon then exactly 12,960 blocks (

3 months) after Segwit activates — The hard fork will commence.

Now if mining pools continue to do what they agreed upon in regards to the NYA plan and other miners join in then the implementation of Segwit will likely happen soon.

What do you think about Segwit2x? Are you in favor of this compromise? Let us know in the comments below.

Now the SegWit2x Hard Fork Has Really Failed to Activate

In case there were any remaining doubts, it now seems clear that the SegWit2x hard fork will not happen.

The SegWit2x project, a product of the New York Agreement signed onto by a long list of companies and miners in May, had scheduled a hard fork to double Bitcoin’s block weight limit today. And while the controversial effort was suspended by leaders of the project last week, this would not have stopped anyone else from proceeding with it. Companies like Coinbase were indeed taking into account that the SegWit2x hard fork could still happen.

The Fork That Wasn’t

SegWit2x nodes — most notably btc1 — were programmed to fork away from the Bitcoin blockchain this afternoon (UTC) to create the SegWit2x blockchain and a new currency, often referred to as B2X . However, not a single SegWit2x block has been mined since fork point, nor is there any indication that this is likely to happen. For all intents and purposes, there is no SegWit2x — nor a B2X.

Further, software bugs in the btc1 codebase made all btc1 implementations grind to a halt even before it reached the expected fork point. While Bitcoin and SegWit2x nodes were widely expected to share a single blockchain up until block 494783 and then to go their own ways at block 494784, btc1 nodes never made it past block 494782.

This is mainly because the first block on the SegWit2x chain was required to have a “base block” larger than one megabyte. This is how the chain would diverge from the original Bitcoin protocol. But due to what is referred to as an “off-by-one error,” SegWit2x blocks started to reject smaller-than-one-megabyte blocks one block too soon — at block 494,783 instead of 494,784.

Moreover, another btc1 bug prevented miners from mining a big enough block when it was needed. So even if some miners did want to proceed with the fork, they accidentally wouldn’t have done so — at least not automatically. Miners would instead have had to manually configure their block weight settings, but it’s unlikely they knew about this step. Btc1 maintainer Jeff Garzik (while also denying there was a problem) has since released a patch to resolve this issue.

But judging by the absence of any SegWit2x blocks, the patch hasn’t made a difference, most likely because few, if any, miners were interested in mining on the SegWit2x chain in the first place.

Despite the seeming failure of SegWit2x to take off in any way, it should be noted that there is technically no way to declare a fork like SegWit2x officially “dead” or “failed.”

While unlikely, it’s always possible that the SegWit2x hard fork could proceed at some point in the future. In fact, there is no way to tell whether the SegWit2x chain is currently being mined with a little bit of hash power right now, and it is strictly impossible to foresee whether it will be mined later on. Perhaps a SegWit2x block will be found a day from now, a week from now or even ten years from now, at which point SegWit2x and B2X will technically come into existence.

However, since the SegWit2x chain did not include a mining difficulty reset, it will be as hard to mine a B2X block as it currently is to mine a BTC block. Meanwhile, market support for B2X appears to be extremely low, with B2X futures trading below 2 percent of BTC. So even if miners decide to mine B2X blocks, they’d almost certainly be earning far less than they would by mining BTC. Or, more accurately, they’d spend more on electricity bills than they’d be able to earn by mining B2X. The financial incentive to mine the SegWit2x chain just isn’t there.

Alternatively, SegWit2x could see a bit of a rebirth in the form of “ BitcoinX ” (BTX). This project, supposedly started by disappointed SegWit2x supporters, will take a snapshot of bitcoin balances at block height 494,783 and start a SegWit2x-like altcoin that offers all BTC holders the equivalent amount in BTX. Though, while this coin is arguably more viable than B2X thanks to a mining difficulty reset and more, it really is a new coin — arguably even more so than B2X would have been.

Correcting misinformation on Segwit2x and btc1

вЂњSegwit2xвЂќ, a proposal for an incompatible change to the consensus rules of the Bitcoin network, has received increased exposure recently. There have been attempts to mislead people into believing that the btc1 project, the implementation of the Segwit2x proposal, is a necessary update to existing softwareвЂ”it is not. Instead, it is a contentious deviation from the existing network rules, and its users will soon find themselves disagreeing with the rest of the network about the validity of blocks and transactions.

Please be aware that:

Segregated Witness (or Segwit, a soft fork which will be active within the coming days) is not related to the Segwit2x hard fork. Segregated Witness is backwards compatible with all previous Bitcoin software. For the vast majority of Bitcoin users, no action is required.

bitcoincore.org is the official website and @bitcoincoreorg is the official Twitter account of the Bitcoin Core project. Any other websites or Twitter accounts claiming to represent the project are fraudulent. Bitcoin Core is an open source project that welcomes contributions and review from anyone through its GitHub project. Bitcoin Core binaries can be obtained from bitcoincore.org and are always digitally signed by the release managerвЂ™s signing key. The latest version of Bitcoin Core at the time of writing is 0.14.2.

btc1 is not connected to Bitcoin Core in any way. No regular Bitcoin Core contributors support btc1 or have any connection to the project, nor were any involved in the design of its proposed hard fork.

We strongly advise users not to download any Bitcoin full-node software claiming to be an вЂ˜upgradeвЂ™ to BitcoinвЂ™s consensus rules without carefully considering the impact of the proposed changes on the Bitcoin system and the level of community support for it. This includes proposed consensus changes in new releases of Bitcoin Core.

While it is difficult to determine what the broader Bitcoin community supports, be wary of claims suggesting the large and diverse Bitcoin community is moving entirely to one fork or another, without independent verification. Sign-on letters have been used by companies claiming to represent their clients/users without their agreement, and have often used imprecise and misleading language. In the past, letters for Bitcoin XT, Bitcoin Classic, and Bitcoin Unlimited, as well as others, have been circulated to indicate general support of an idea, while being trumpeted as commitments to run software irrespective of community considerations, only to be dropped some months later.

Concerns raised by Bitcoin Core contributors and Bitcoin community members about the Segwit2x proposal have not been adequately addressed by its proponents. The details of the proposal were established before BitcoinвЂ™s Segregated Witness activation, and before the recent creation of the BCH currency. It is irresponsible to ignore the outcome of these events when planning for the future. As an example, weвЂ™ve seen the confusion that arises when a single address is valid across two chains, yet the Segwit2x proposal intends to repeat the same mistake. Furthermore, BCHвЂ™s implementation of strong replay protection provided significant protection to users of both BCH, as well as Bitcoin, something Segwit2x does not plan on providing.

BitcoinвЂ™s consensus rules should only be changed sparingly and with broad agreement from the entire community. Segwit2x, in both its process and implementation, has been opposed by many. Bitcoin Core will continue to support the Segwit soft fork and we look forward to helping Bitcoin scale to new heights over the coming years.

Correcting misinformation on Segwit2x and btc1 was published on August 18, 2017 .

пятница, 29 июня 2018 г.

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пятница, 29 июня 2018 г.