SegWit2x Cancelled: Bitcoin's Blocksize Debate Ends
[AUTHOR: Mike Belshe]
[LEAD] Mike Belshe, Wences Casares, Jihan Wu, Jeff Garzik, Peter Smith and Erik Voorhees
BREAKING: SegWit2x Cancelled, Confirms Message Signed by Mike Belshe, Jihan Wu, Jeff Garzik and Others
While Bitcoin prices soared ahead of the upcoming controversial hard fork – SegWit2x, it appears that the plan has been called off after declining support from the community. This was confirmed in a message posted by Bitgo CEO Mike Belshe, and signed off by the likes of Jihan Wu, Jeff Garzik and Erik Voorhees.
SegWit2x was a solution proposed by a group of companies in order to solve Bitcoin’s scaling issues, and was formally expressed in the New York Agreement earlier this year.
However, given how the decision was taken by corporate entities without the community’s support or involvement from Bitcoin’s core development team, it became controversial, and the subject of much debate.
The main problem with SegWit2x was the proposed increase in Bitcoin’s block size from 1MB to 2MB – a change that would require a software upgrade that would not be backwards compatible, leading to a split in the blockchain.
Bitcoin’s core development team and the community at large has been against the split on several accounts, from an increase in the blockchain size alienating independent nodes to corporate entities seizing control.
While the NYA had major support at the time of signing, several parties backed off recently, including mining pools like F2Pool and Slush.
Mike Belshe’s letter cited the dropping support as a major reason behind the decision:
“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.
Unfortunately, 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.”
However, the letter continued to support the block upgrade plan and expressed hope that the community would back it at a later date:
“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.”
At the end, the letter was signed by Mike Belshe, Wences Casares, Jihan Wu, Jeff Garzik, Peter Smith and Erik Voorhees and thanked everyone who supported the SegWit2x campaign.
Now that the SegWit2x drama is over, it remains to be seen how Bitcoin’s price reacts – however, at the time of writing the price has risen to over $7,777.
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