Bitcoin Averts Hard Fork Over Fears of Dividing

November 8, 2017 (The Ferowich Report) – A bitcoin hard fork championed by in a plan called Segwit2x would have increased the block size, thus accelerating transaction speeds, but was officially suspended Wednesday, November 8.

One of the Segwit2x project leaders, Mike Belshe, wrote in an email Wednesday, “although we strongly believe in the need for a larger block size, there is something we believe is even more important: keeping the community together.”

Segwit2x “could divide the community and be a setback to bitcoin’s growth,” he continued, “and this was never the goal of Segwit2x.”

Belshe cited worrisome fees for bitcoins on the blockchain, and reducing fees was one of the main aims of Segwit2x, but at least for now it won’t happen by “on-chain capacity increases.”

"Today was a massive win for Bitcoin as decentralized, censorship resistant digital gold," said Tuur Demeester, economist and investor, who added that "miners & corps are not in charge, savers are!"

Why does it matter? Bitcoin’s price surged to $7,879 following the news, the Wall Street Journal points out, marking a fresh all-time high. The crypto’s price has since cooled off to $7,267.

According to a November 6 analysis by Ariel Deschapell, fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education, “with two weeks remaining until it's slated to launch, all eyes are on the imminent hard fork of the bitcoin software: Segwit2x.

“Its significance? The fear that it could initiate the largest and most contentious chain split that bitcoin, and perhaps any cryptocurrency, has yet seen. Such an event could have devastating consequences for the ecosystem and its wider perception.”

For now, the bitcoin community exhales.