Has the Bitcoin Divide Been Avoided for Now?

A split in digital currency has been avoided due to proactive miners who tested new software to pull bitcoin out of its historic lows. After following fears of a split, the currency experienced a major setback but quickly reversed all the losses as price rebound on Monday. Prices reached $2,300, mitigating major losses experienced in the past week. Has the bitcoin divided been avoided forever or is it just another temporary patch fix to the big problem?

Bitcoin

The Bitcoin Civil War

 

Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency on the planet, accepted at most major digital currency supporting websites and outlets. The bitcoin community was divided for two years over the possible scaling of the currency. The new software SegWit2x will likely mitigate the differences. Also known as Segregated Witness, the new software will make transactions faster than 1 MB per 10 minutes, reducing transaction backlogs.

Note that because of this split in the community, rival currencies like Ethereum could gain more attention from users.

The new software tries to manage the demands of both sides. New Bitcoin Improvement Proposal, BIP 91, helps in keeping things simple and making transactions faster. Larger miners have started using the software. Per coin dance, more than half of the mining in the past 24 hours has been facilitated by the SegWit2x. Bixin, BTCC, and Antpool adopted the new software over the weekend, avoiding the split for some time. However, for this to happen, support will have to reach 80%, as against 95% earlier. Additionally, the support should maintain a threshold for at least two days. Once this happens, the SegWit2x will get locked into the blockchain permanently.

The Series of Events Leading up to a Bitcoin Divide

Last Friday, bitcoin’s price slipped to $1,758 as there was a threat of a hard fork in the currency. The slip that began on Friday carried through the weekends, making bitcoin lose more each passing day. However, during this time, major miners started adopting SegWit2x and facilitating mining through the same software. Traders were excited because of this adoption. Now, the bitcoin community could move ahead of its bitter feuds and focus on growth.

However, we must note that there is more to the bitcoin civil war than meets the eye. Many members believe that SegWit2x is merely a compromise between the two sides and not an effective solution. Improper bug testing has been called out as a major issue for the update. SegWit2x will not be included in code till July 21. If most miners support it, the problems may come to a halt. If not, we could see the rise of a new coin too.

 

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