It seems things are going from bad to worse for the SegWit2x developers and their supporters. More specifically, we have seen more and more service providers pull their support as of late. Even though Jeff Garzik is confident this hard fork will be successful, the odds are stacking against SegWit2x right now. With OpenBazaar and Vinny Lingham’s Civic having pulled out, things suddenly look a lot less certain for supporters of this fork. It may effectively come down to which miners support the chain permanently and which don’t.
SegWit2x Takes Another big hit
Over the past two months, there have been multiple debates regarding the validity of the SegWit2x scaling proposal. Initially, the New York Agreement was signed by a lot of industry players, even though this list has shrunk quite a bit in recent weeks. Various companies are removing support for this proposal, which shouldn’t come as a big surprise to anyone these days. More specifically, the validity of this chain has been in question for quite some time now.
Late last night, it became evident the list of SegWit2x supporters lost three more major names. OpenBazaar, the popular peer-to-peer marketplace software provider, isn’t keen on SegWit2x. In fact, CEO Brian Hoffman eloquently stated why he doesn’t believe in this solution anymore. Initial support for this hard fork was given to ensure Segregated Witness would activate on the Bitcoin network. Rather than bringing the community closer together, it only caused a bigger fracture.
As a result, it seems the future of OpenBazaar leaves no room for politically-driven forks such as SegWit2x. It’s a remarkable decision, albeit one that is shared by quite a few prominent people in the Bitcoin world. Vinny Lingham, for example, was also one of the original supporters of the New York Agreement, though he too has reversed his position. That’s a remarkable turn of events, although his reasoning appears entirely different from Hoffman’s.
In light of the recent death threats that I have received, I realize that Segwit2x is a bad idea and I publicly revoke my support for it.
— Vinny Lingham (@VinnyLingham) November 2, 2017
By officially distancing himself from this project, things have taken a surprising turn. According to Lingham, he received death threats due to his support for this scaling solution. Whether or not that is true will never be known. It is certainly possible that public figures in the Bitcoin world receive some threats now and then. Then again, there is a big difference between idle threats made by a kid on Twitter and an actual threat to one’s safety. Nevertheless, in this day and age, any and all threats should be taken seriously.
To make things even worse for SegWit2x, the Bitso team isn’t too certain about its support either. More specifically, the company has noted that SegWit2x support is on the decline. Daniel Vogel, co-founder and president of Bitso, thinks it’s wise not to mine the hard fork once support drops below 50%. Whether or not someone will pay attention to these (wise?) words remains to be determined. It is evident that the main objective of this agreement has not been reached. Indeed, the Bitcoin community is further apart from one another than it has ever been.
In the end, the success of SegWit2x will largely hinge on miners. If the chain isn’t profitable enough to mine, the support will quickly taper off in this regard. With so many parties pulling out prior to the fork itself, things aren’t looking great whatsoever. Then again, the fork is still more than a week away. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for this scaling solution, even though things look far less impressive than they did some time ago.
