2x Called Off: Bitcoin Hard Fork Suspended for Lack of Consensus

Alyssa Hertig, writing for CoinDesk: The organizers of a controversial bitcoin scaling proposal are suspending an attempt to increase the block size by way of a software upgrade. Known for its strong early support from bitcoin startups and mining pools, the plan, called Segwit2x, or simply 2x, was to trigger a block size increase at block 494784, expected to occur on or around November 16th. The suspension was announced today in an email, written by Mike Belshe, CEO and co-founder of bitcoin wallet software provider BitGo. One of the leaders of the Segwit2x project, he argued that the scaling proposal is too controversial to move forward. He wrote: "Unfortunately, it is clear that we have not built sufficient consensus for a clean block size 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."

Animosity

[phantomfive]

Nodes that supported the fork were actually being actively blocked by other nodes. I don't know if that had any effect in his announcement, but it might have affected his ability to even mine.

Re:

[Aighearach]

It is designed to be centralized. That's the whole point, it is a fiat currency!

Time to invest..

[Anonymous Coward]

Bitcoin value has spiked on this news. Is it possible this was an elaborate ruse for someone to make a fortune investing in Bitcoin at a certain time, know it's guaranteed to jump on the news?

Re:Time to invest..

[Anonymous Coward]

No. Currency markets are tightly regulated; such behavior would surely result in charges being sought and probably jailtime. Basically trying to manipulate markets is highly illegal and usually results in a very large slap on the wrist, such that it's not worth it.

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[Anonymous Coward]

The fact that it is unregulated is precisely what makes ButtCoin so ripe for unsavory manipulation...

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

Supporters claim the strength of Bitcoin is the fact it's not under control of government, then those same supporters say it needs to be regulated by government.

No they don't. I know plenty of bitcoin advocates, and none of them want government regulation. How would "government regulation" even work? Most bitcoins are mined in China, so the only plausible regulation would have to be done by the Chinese government. How many people are calling for that?

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[Aighearach]

Governments consistently advise that currency trading is already regulated, and if you don't follow the rules you'll go to jail. The law already allows for and regulates private currencies! In fact, here in the United States in the early period of our country we only had private currency, so it is not at all surprising that regulations already exist.

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[MMC Monster]

Hint: Bitcoin and other Blockchain-related coins are not regulated by anyone.

Not only is currency manipulation not considered illegal when associated with these instruments, but insider trading can be legally done as well.

Re:

[oakgrove]

Hint: Bitcoin and other Blockchain-related coins are not regulated by anyone.

Well enjoy it while it lasts cuz the SEC is going to come down on this like a ton of bricks. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing.
https://www.coindesk.com/obvio... [coindesk.com]
https://arstechnica.com/tech-p... [arstechnica.com]

Re:

[oakgrove]

You misunderstood me completely. Iâ(TM)m not in favor of the regulations. Merely stating the situation as it appears to be playing out.

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[DontBeAMoran]

Can you please make an account already so that we can be friends?

People here are mean and keep calling me a moran and I don't know why!

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[Kenja]

So you're saying buy high and sell low? Let us know how that works out for you.

Re:

[DontBeAMoran]

It works fine, thank you very much!

Sent from my iPhone in the upside-down world.

hq3x is better anyway

[bluefoxlucid]

I would have voted for a proposal to incorporate 2xSAI as well, but hq3x has long been the best option available. Does anyone even know how Segwit2x works?

Re:

[olsmeister]

doubles block size from 1 MB to 2 MB.

Re:hq3x is better anyway

[sexconker]

He's making a joke. He's referring to filters for emulating old games.

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[hoggoth]

You keep trying...

Bitcoins are mined with specialized ASIC chips now. Trying to use GPUs would be a waste of (a lot of) money because you couldn't compete.

But you keep posting this ad, I'm sure some sucker will buy...

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[powerlord]

I'm convinced most of the mining craze is being pushed by the GPU makers who can barely keep their units on the virtual Shelves before being sold out ... regularly ... of those models "used by Crypto Miners".

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[DontBeAMoran]

He said crypto currency, he does not mention Bitcoin.

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[DontBeAMoran]

I'm telling you, it's a sure thing!

Just go back to 2009 and buy two pizzas' worth of Bitcoins!

and when China firewalls bitcoin to be china only?

[Joe_Dragon]

and when China firewalls bitcoin to be china only?

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[DontBeAMoran]

Even if Bitcoin falls, there's dozens of other cryptos already lined up to take its place.

Ethereum keeps having problems so I'm writing it off, Litecoin should be the logical choice since AFAIK it's existed the longest after Bitcoin. Next up could be Dogecoin, Monero, Vertcoin, etc.

Any takers for Flappycoins, though? I got about 7.75 million of those for sale. Any takers at 10 satoshi each?

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[DontBeAMoran]

He could still invest $70 and own 1% of a Bitcoin. There's currently 8 decimal places to divide a Bitcoin so even 1% is still a lot.

There's not going to be enough Bitcoins that each millionaire on the planet could ever own 1 Bitcoin each. I'd say owning 1% of a Bitcoin is still a lot better than none at all. And he already owns 30% of one. If he can afford to buy 50 dollars' worth of Bitcoin each week, let him do it.

I'm still kicking myself for not buying Bitcoins when I first heard about them right here on

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[Gussington]

I'm still kicking myself for not buying Bitcoins when I first heard about them right here on Slashdot.

Aren't we all. After much cynicism I bit the bullet earlier this year and have already made a couple of grand. A mate which jumped in least year is up a couple of hundred grand. Oh the benefits of hindsight...

I told you so.

[Narcocide]

Glad to see someone is paying attention, at least.

Bet on the fork

[Drunkulus]

I wager 200 quatloos on the newcomer.

Props

[uvajed_ekil]

Props to the developers and other proponents of 2x. I was a casual supporter, but I give them a lot of credit now for walking away from their own project after being convinced that it was not in the best interests of the greater Bitcoin community. They had a good point and an arguably acceptable progression of the technology, but if widespread adoption could not be agreed upon, cancelling their fork was the right call. That takes humility, as sheer pride would have prevented a lot of people from changing th