Support for Segwit2x, the New York Agreement, and the Upcoming Bitcoin Fork Explained

A little over three months ago, Segwit, a Bitcoin upgrade, was activated after a long and hefty debate. The result of this debate also created an altcoin called bitcoin cash, which was created as the opposition to the Segwit solution. Now, we're on the verge of another split in the bitcoin network called Segwit2x. For a complete history of everthing that's happened ultill now,

The much-araited Segwit activation came with a condition: a block-size increase within three months of activation (i.e., a hard-fork). Miner who were initially against Segwit activated it under the terms of the so-called New Yark Agreement (NYA). The NYA is also known as the Silbert or DCG Agreement after Barry Silbert, The deal's broker and the founder of the Digital Currency Group. Silbert brokered the deal between various industry players, most notably mining firm Bitmain, the Coinbase exchange, and the Bitpay payment service.

The Segwit soft fork is seeing steadly increasing usage to the network's benefit (such as lower fees). Further dependent improvement (chiefly, the development of the Lightning Network) are virtually assured. Focus has now shifted to the NYA's final part, which demands a mid-November 2017 hard fork to increase block size.