Something puzzling happened last week. 1Hash, a mining pool that barely had around 0.79% network share, shot up to 8% in just one week. They are an actual pool, having no hashrate of their own, but the sudden jump is somewhat surprising.

They’re not an exception. A number of new pools have come on recently, but usually they progress somewhat slowly, growing to 2-3%, then perhaps 5-8%. Shooting up from 1% to 8% is somewhat unique.

So we tried to understand what their views are on the blocksize debate. Trustnodes has learned that 1Hash is, or appears to be, against Bitcoin Unlimited. In a public, roughly translated, statement (with proper translation to be provided shortly) 1Hash said:

“BU intends to divorce from the current situation, to create their own basic principles of Bitcoin, that is – a hard fork. Bitcoin will also be split. BU hopes to have larger blocks, which means that a large pool can get more benefits from it, so it is easy to lead to the centralization of Bitcoin mining, the fees will be higher.”

1Hash has puzzlingly stated eth’s value has fallen after the hardfork. A rough translation says that “In the most glorious period, [eth’s] price was climbing all the way, becoming the second currency after the second currency, but, because of a hack, it had to hardfork, so price plummeted and has not yet returned to its peak level.”

Ethereum has increased from a bottom of $5 to a high of almost $60 after the DAO fork and a number of other bug related forks. Its value, rather than falling, has reached great new heights, with its market cap increasing from around $1 billion to nearly $5 billion.

Even after ethereum forked, the combined value of eth and ETC was greater than before the fork, with the currency falling only after a gas mispricing bug was exploited, which required two non-controversial forks, with a third unintentional fork created in the process.

Despite all of this mess, the currency has brushed it all aside, with much of it as good as forgotten. Instead, they appear to have pressed on the gas pedal, moving at full speed for the past 2-3 months, attracting corporate interest, favorable legislation, as well as many new projects, including formerly bitcoin based projects which have now pivoted due to high fees and transaction delays.

As such, it is not clear whether 1Hash is fully uninformed or completely out of touch, but if it is indeed the case that they are strongly against Bitcoin Unlimited, that suggests a continuation of the stalemate, with fees potentially increasing while network effects go elsewhere.

Some to eth and some to, somewhat surprisingly, litecoin. The bitcoin copycat is just around 15% away from activating segwit, attracting the attention of Bitcoin Core supporters, with the currency enjoying front page mentions on r/bitcoin despite the sub’s explicit rule that altcoin discussion is strictly forbidden.

If litecoin does activate segwit, it may well be the case that some Bitcoin Core developers, especially Blockstream employees, do move to the currency as it would be cleaner than a proof of work hardfork, or a flag day soft-fork (otherwise known as UASF), giving all visions the opportunity to co-exist.

Whether that would indeed be a resolution to the stalemate remains to be seen, but what is becoming somewhat clear is the fact that altcoins are now enjoying a boom they have not seen since 2014.