The tide, perhaps, is turning. Following bitcoin’s price crash by $300 after some exchanges stated they will not follow the longest chain in the event of a hardfork, George Kikvadze, Executive Vice Chairman at BitFury, publicly stated:

“Discussions (or even speculation) of PoW change are super irresponsible! And even in the remote 0,01 prc chance it may happen, those responsible, we will spare no resources, get best lawyers and prosecutors to go after you wherever you will be in the world!

Bitcoin has become a multi-billion industry, with great financial investment & society responsibility. We will protect this at all cost!”

Luke-Jr, a Bitcoin Core developer and Blockstream contractor, has previously threatened with a PoW fork. Earlier today, a new account announced a “PoW upgrade initiative,” which lists Luke-Jr as contributing development.

Kikvadze’s statement appears to be a response to that announcement and is made after he publicly stated:

“Good meeting in China. Confident together we shall solve scaling! Sides need to stop attacking each other! And senseless censorship must stop!” He further added: “Always good to spend time with @JihanWu Impressive what they have built. Respect for the drive and hard work! China never ceases to amaze!”

Bitfury has been a strong supporter of Bitcoin Core with one of their employees loudly advocating for segregated witnesses, but recent events may be backfiring, especially after the market showed strong disagreement with exchanges.

If Bitfury shifts towards supporting Bitcoin Unlimited, then the new grassroots client may reach as high as 90% of the hashrate prior to the fork as it would leave only BTCC in support of Bitcoin Core.

In such eventuality, it is probable BTCC would move too, thus achieving as good as complete Nakamoto’s consensus. By that point, all businesses would have upgraded, with real nodes probably getting ready as otherwise they would be forked off.

The grassroots client appears to be gaining momentum once more, reaching 43% over the past 24 hours and above 35% over the longer one week period. Very close to 51%, a significant psychological point as it would then become apparent the majority, as shown by the heavily invested miners, support the new client.