A lot has been said and done when it comes to the SegWit2x hard fork. Although most people assume this fork will not happen, that is not entirely factual. The Bitcoin2x website claims there are still plans to go ahead with the fork, although no real specifics are known at this point in time. We do know there is at least some interest in seeing this project move ahead sooner rather than later.
To SegWit2x or not to SegWit2x?
That is the question. More specifically, the main proponents of this hard fork announced they would no longer go ahead with the fork due to a slew of issues. It is evident that the lack of adequate replay protection would always be a major hindrance for this particular Bitcoin hard fork. No one wants to send money to the wrong blockchain simply because the developers couldn’t be bothered to add replay protection from day one. We have seen similar concerns over Bitcoin Gold, although it seems those developers have effectively solved the problem.
How the “new” SegWit2x team plans to address this major problem remains to be determined. All their website mentions is that there will be “different replay protection addition”‘, which is one of the vaguest statements we have seen in the Bitcoin world to date. It is evident that replay protection is something that cannot be coded in a few hours without plenty of expertise and understanding.
No one knows for sure who is behind the new initiative to go ahead with SegWit2x either. It seems highly unlikely that many of the former supporters remain involved, as the fork itself will not have any major impact in its current form whatsoever. Most people already deem Bitcoin Cash the only viable Bitcoin alternative, even though it can only be used in very limited fashion. Other altcoins which do not carry the Bitcoin name will see their day sooner rather than later if this trend keeps up.
Moreover, it is possible the alleged “launch” of SegWit2x is nothing but a joke at this point. A simple message on a website alone doesn’t carry all that much weight these days. Nor do we know who registered the Bitcoin2x.org domain name back in August of 2012, as it seems the plan to create Bitcoin2x has been around for a lot longer than most people realize. It will be interesting to see how all this plays out, even though the odds are still in favor of Bitcoin despite what some people may be telling the world right now.
To be more specific, those individuals are claiming that Bitcoin Cash is destined to rival and overtake Bitcoin as the main blockchain. The recent price pump certainly seems to confirm as much, even though it was all made possible by one exchange representing nearly 50% of trading volume. Whether or not that trend can be maintained for much longer remains to be seen. There is no organic or natural growth associated with Bitcoin Cash right now, and it is mainly supported by the people who failed to fork Bitcoin years earlier with Bitcoin Classic and Bitcoin XT.
In the end, launching SegWit2x despite all its issues would not necessarily be a bad thing. It might improve overall SegWit adoption on the main Bitcoin blockchain, which is an absolute must in order to make Bitcoin itself great again. For now, some companies are more than eager to integrate BCH instead of working with the solution that the Bitcoin Core developers presented to them months ago. It is an interesting turn of events, and one that will continue to cause friction for some time to come.
