BitGo CEO and co-founder Mike Belshe, Xapo CEO Wences Casares, Bitmain co-founder Jihan Wu, Bloq CEO Jeff Garzik, Blockchain CEO Peter Smith and Shapeshift CEO Erik Voorhees, have announced the cancellation of Bitcoin’s Segwit2x hard fork. The hard fork which was scheduled to happen on 16th of November was cancelled due to a lack of consensus among the Bitcoin community. The official statement read –
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 … we are suspending our plans for the upcoming 2MB upgrade.
Mike Belshe, CEO of BitGo, said in the email that in the wake of the Bitcoin Cash and Gold hard fork, the community is divided and addressing the scaling issue would be far too controversial to take forward.
What does this mean for BTC?
We personally believe that cancelling this fork is good for BTC and the crypto ecosystem in general.
Segwit2x was initially agreed upon by most people in the Bitcoin business but faced stiff opposition immediately after Segwit was locked in. Post this, some of the biggest blockers went ahead and forked bitcoin cash.
Without the Segwit2x hard fork, we might see network congestion issues persist and higher transaction fees. We might see more side chains, and signature compression to make more space. Overall, Bitcoin Core’s roadmap still persists.
As for the altcoin market, it is hard to tell which way this will go. As of now, its utter pandemonium in the crypto market. Stay tuned and we will keep you posted on all the consequences.
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