EXCLUSIVE—SegWit2x, a controversial change to the bitcoin blockchain, will no longer happen, bitcoin holders and cryptocurrency enthusiasts found out yesterday.
Aside from the initial shock, bitcoiners seem to be fine to wave goodbye to SegWit2x. Some even seem to be celebrating, at least according to Twitter:
????ALERT????
Our wish has come true! #NO2X !!!
The #SegWit2x Team has cancelled plans for the upcoming $BTC 2MB upgrade, per Charlie Shrem!#Bitcoin will always be KING! ????
— ???? Crypto_Kirby ???? (@CryptoKirby) November 8, 2017
It’s an exciting time we are living in. #Bitcoin #Segwit2x https://t.co/UHir1lvSLB
— Prabhanshu Attri (@PrabhanshuAttri) November 9, 2017
SegWit2x was a software proposal for bitcoin controversial in the community because implementing it would have expanded the size of a bitcoin “block,” the method by which transactions on the blockchain are logged. Its implementation was widely expected to fork the bitcoin blockchain (yes, again) leading to the creation of yet new coins.
With that in mind, this might even be a positive for bitcoin, Jacob Eliosoff, cryptocurrency expert and general partner for crypto investment company Calibrated Markets, told Bank Innovation.
Eliosoff told Bank Innovation via email:
It’s a huge day for Bitcoin. Arguably the biggest event in its history. But the repercussions are still very unclear. At first blush, this is a positive for BTC, even to some degree for 2x supporters like me, because we avoid what was looking like a very messy November! We all want one Bitcoin, not two. But, the underlying issues – capacity, dev-miner relations, how much consensus is required for changes – will keep coming up.
Consensus was the other major factor for those opposed to SegWit2x; the proposal was decided upon by a small number of those on the blockchain. This, a good number of those in the crypto community felt, went against bitcoin’s traditional value proposition of decentralized governance.
In other words, more people should have been involved in the decision in the first place, as others on Twitter expressed:
A reminder of how centralized the #segwit2x movement was. It was canceled the exact same way it was created, by just a few people sitting in a room and signing a piece of paper.
— Vortex [#NO2X] (@theonevortex) November 8, 2017
The effects of abandoning SegWit2x are still unknown, Eliosoff said, and so is the future of bitcoin; while this specific proposal may be dead, there’s always the possibility for others, according to Eliosoff:
Segwit2x was the deal to activate segwit + 2x, and now that segwit is deployed and the 2x is called off, future changes will have to stand on their own. But yes, another 2x-like capacity-increase hard fork may be proposed.
Bitcoin is down slightly today, trading at $7,148.47 at 11:04 am ET.