After months of uncertainity and fear of a split in the bitcoin network, the group that was leading the activation of Segwit2x, a fork in the bitcoin blockchain, have called off their attempt for now. Mike Belshe, the cofounder of Bitgo, posted in the Segwit2x mailing list that since they have not been able to achieve sufficient support from the community, they are suspending the Segwit2x fork.

What is Segwit2x?

Segwit2x was a movement led by several of big bitcoin companies and mining pools for the activation of Segwit and the increase in block size of blocks on bitcoin after the signing of the New York Agreement. After the bitcoin developers refused to agree to their demands, they launched their own codebase which was scheduled to create a fork in the bitcoin blockchain on November 16.

Segwit2x had 90% of mining hashpower and support from some of the biggest companies in the bitcoin world but it lacked support from the bitcoin community and developers. Segwit2x was opposed by several major bitcoin meetup groups who had put up statements denouncing segwit2x along with several popular influencers in the bitcoin space commenting about the dangers of bitcoin being controlled by a bunch of VC’s and CEO’s.

Segwit2x Cancelled

It was clear that Segwit2x didn’t had any sort of consensus. It was just a matter of time when the Segwit2x group was ready to accept this fact. This happened on November 8th, when Mike Belshe, CEO of Bitgo, posted in the segwit2x mailing list that although they believe that bitcoin is strongly in need of bigger block size, they dont have sufficient consensus for a clean block size increase. Until bitcoin community comes together and finds a better solution, Segwit2x is suspended. The mail was also signed by Wences Casares(CEO of Xapo), Jihan Wu(CEO of Bitmain), Jeff Garzik(Bloq), Peter Smith(Blockchain.com) and Erik Voorhees(Shapeshift).

Effect of Segwit2x Withdrawal

As soon as the news came out, the bitcoin community was ecstatic. Several people thanked the segwit2x group for calling of the fork, others criticized them for wasting the time of bitcoin developers for so long. Bitcoin price also responded to the news by making a new all time high of $7899. As soon as the news settled down, price came back to $7200-$7400 levels.

As their is no uncertainty and fear of a chain split now, people are expecting a pump in bitcoin’s price. With the CME futures market starting in a couple of weeks and the upgrades such as lightning, schnorr signatures and MAST are coming soon, bitcoin’s future look bright.

Conclusion

This has been a long fight for saving bitcoin from being overtaken by a bunch of CEO’s and VC’s. We are glad that the community stood up against this and proved that money alone does not control bitcoin’s future.

Let us know how you feel about the calling off the segwit2x fork in the comments below.