Virtual currency Bitcoin's hard fork Segwit 2 postponed, concerns that divisive riots will hinder growth

The virtual currency Bitcoin (bit coin) split on August 1, 2017, a new Bitcoin Cash (BCC) was born, and a lot of confusion occurred in the market. Considering practical aspects, it is inevitable that bit coin functions with technical problems are inevitable, so it is certain that repeating of bit coin splitting will continue in the future, and a split riot is a major obstacle to the growth of bit coin It is pointed out that it will become.

Bitcoin compromise collapses, leaving future growth in doubt | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/11/bitcoin-compromise-collapses-leaving-future-growth-in-doubt/

The bit coin records and publishes a ledger called a block chain that connects blocks that store transaction records, preventing settlement systems that prevent double payment and miswritten money. Due to insufficient capacity of this block, delays have occurred in the remittance of bit coins, so practical operation is in doubt. In order to overcome the above-mentioned problem called scalability problem, the discussion between the bit coin core system developer, the bit coin user, and the bit coin minor is confused about how to improve the bit coin system .

As a way to solve the problem of the bit coin system, a group that puts practicality on alleging that the block size should be increased is insisting. It is a claim that practicality is kept by solving the delay of remittance by making 1 MB of at least 2 MB in size.

On the other hand, there are groups that firmly oppose to change the block size, arguing that the hard fork which changes the block size has the possibility of the virtual currency system itself being permanently changed. At the time of article creation, the total capacity of the block chain is increased to 140 GB, and it continues to increase that it continues to increase at a pace of 5 GB every month, as the block size increases.


There seems to be a difference in the technical risk estimate for both arguments, but it can be said that there is a gap in opinion from the viewpoint of what "virtual currency" is seeking. Block size boosters place importance on the transactional merit that you can remit and lodge money with anyone anywhere in the world at a low cost. In other words, I hope to eventually develop bit coins into a payment platform like VISA. To the contrary, the group that opposes the hard fork for stability seeks anonymity of the virtual currency, places where influence of bit coin exchanges becoming big companies and government related organizations are unavailable There is a meaning to put a bit coin in the coin, and the idea that some inconvenience in transactions can be accepted.

Another approach has also been proposed to break the situation where there is no consensus. Changing the Block Size Hard fork means restarting with a new block chain, which means shifting to something like a new bit coin or bit coin 2.0, but while maintaining the existing block chains, "SegWit" which improves trading speed by compressing digital signature information at the same time to reduce the size is a typical example. In SSegWit, the block chain itself is not changed and it is called soft fork because it maintains compatibility with conventional bit coins.


On August 1, 2017, a soft fork that adopted SegWit was executed and a bit coin cache appeared, but "Segwit 2x" to execute a hard fork to expand the block size to 2 MB after 3 months after introducing SegWit is Bitcoin It was proposed by Improvement Proposals 91 (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 91 / BIP 91) and attracted attention as to whether it will be executed in November 2017. Meanwhile, Mike Belshe of bit coin wallet service Bitgo promoting Segwit 2 x on November 8, 2017 said, "It is clear that there is not enough agreement on the upgrade that will increase the block size at this time is formed." , Announced the postponement of hard fork Segwit 2 x.

[Bitcoin - Segwit 2 x] Segwit 2 x Final Steps
https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-Segwit2x/2017-November/000685.html


The execution of Segwit 2x was to be postponed, but the transaction fee (remittance charge) of the bit coin has increased to about 5 dollars (about 580 yen) due to the increase in transaction demand, and the transaction fee of the virtual currency One of the big advantages is being canceled. As the number of transactions increases, as the number of transactions increases, the problem of traceability further increases, so it is unavoidable that a major update of the bit coin system will be inevitable sooner or later, with the price of the bit coin fluctuating every time a split riot occurs It is expected that confusion will occur.