Bitcoin (BTC) has had a wild last few days seeing some serious volatility and climbing as high as $7,700 as traders rejoiced the news that Segwit2x hardfork has been called off with the majority of bitcoin miners rejoicing the fact.
Most in the bitcoin community view this is as a major win because if the controversy had not been resolved, Bitcoin may have literally split in two with no clear consensus on which version was the “real” bitcoin. Clearly this was a terrible idea from the start.
Bitcoin (BTC) is the worlds first cryptocurrency and digital payment system that started in 2009 at less than $0.01 USD and rose up to recent highs of $7,700. BTC is the first decentralized digital currency, as the system works without a central repository or single administrator. From a user perspective, Bitcoin is like cash for the Internet. It was invented by an unknown person or group of people under the name Satoshi Nakamoto and released as open-source software in 2009. Currently well over 100,000 merchants and vendors accept bitcoin as payment.
Bitcoin is peer-to-peer, and transactions take place between users directly, with no intermediary. All transactions are verified by network nodes and recorded in a public distributed ledger called the blockchain. Bitcoins are created as a reward for miners who secure the network and process Bitcoin transactions.
The first Bitcoin specification and proof of concept was published in 2009 in a cryptography mailing list by Satoshi Nakamoto. Satoshi left the project in late 2010 without revealing much about himself. The community has since grown exponentially with many developers working on Bitcoin.
The welcome news that the bitcoin split had been called off came in the form of an email from the leaders of the SegWit2X. fork project including prominent bitcoin figures like Xapo CEO Wences Casares and Chinese mining pool leader Jihan Wu.
According to the email:
The Segwit2x effort began in May with a simple purpose: to increase the blocksize and improve Bitcoin scalability. At the time, the Bitcoin community was in crisis after nearly 3 years of heavy debate, and consensus for Segwit seemed like a distant mirage with only 30% support among miners. Segwit2x found its first success in August, as it broke the deadlock and quickly led to Segwit’s successful activation. Since that time, the team shifted its efforts to phase two of the project – a 2MB blocksize increase.
The email concluded that ”Continuing on the current path could divide the community and be a setback to Bitcoin’s growth. This was never the goal of Segwit2x.” however this is exactly what the entire Segwit2x effort did for a time is divide the community and restrain the price of BTC.
Opponents of the SegWit2X fork such as Charlie Lee said that he would remove the “NO2X” symbol from his biography to mark their opposition.
Segwit2x hardfork has been called off! Common sense prevails. Let's now work together towards scaling safely. We may need something like a 2x hardfork in the future, but let's do it when there's consensus and not rushed. 🚀
(Removing my NO2X tag now.) 😀 https://t.co/FuaUy2Kzex
— Charlie Lee Ⓜ️🕸️ (@SatoshiLite) November 8, 2017
There are many controversies surrounding Bitcoin and its spectacular rise in recent months; there are many men such as JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon who clearly come from a different time who stated
“If you’re stupid enough to buy it, you’ll pay the price for it one day. The only value of bitcoin is what the other guy’ll pay for it,” Dimon said. “Honestly I think there’s a good chance of the buyers out there are out there jazzing it up every day so that maybe you’ll buy it too, and take them out.”
Another man from a different time is Jordan Belfort, known by a small group of people as the subject of the flick ”the wolf of wall street” also chimed in on Bitcoin saying its a fraud.
The fact is anything is only worth what another will pay for it, be it gold, diamonds or anything else, its only worth what people are willing to pay for it and every day it seems people are willing to pay more for bitcoin.
Of course the movers and shakers that make Bitcoin great are generally from a younger generating with a much better understanding of current events, world events and how bitcoin plays into it. Nobody is asking their parents for advice on Bitcoin, and most would agree that nobody should be asking Jamie Dimon or Jordan Belfort either.
The reality is that Bitcoin is really only known about by a tiny percentage of the population and its just now starting to see mainstream attention with 30,000 new bitcoin wallets created every day there is no reason to suggest the coin will stop increasing in value any time soon.