
Bitcoin Is in Wild Upheaval After the Cancellation of the Segwit2x Fork - venturis_voice
http://fortune.com/2017/11/12/bitcoin-upheavel-segwit2x-fork/
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xwvvvvwx
> _More profoundly, Bitcoin Cash’s hashrate, or network-wide cryptographic
> processing power, has surpassed Bitcoin’s._

This is not correct. BCH difficulty adjustment algorithm kicked in last night
(difficulty +400%) [1] and BCH mining profitability tanked.

BTC is now ~3.5x more profitable to mine [2], and as a result most of the
hashpower has returned to BTC [3].

It would seem that at least a large part of the movements this weekend were
the result of miners gaming the BCH difficulty adjustment algorithm, combined
with a dash of FOMO and pump / dump dynamics.

BCH hardforks today to make an emergency fix to the difficulty adjustment
algorithm [4], so longer term it will be interesting to see what happens to
the price, once the incentives for miners to game the difficulty algorithm
disappear.

Hopefully the new algorithm allows the BCH difficulty to stabilise and the two
chains can coexist.

It increasingly seems that forks will be commonplace, and as such the bitcoin
protocol could probably benefit from built in replay protection and a more
responsive difficulty adjustment algorithm.

[1]: [https://fork.lol/pow/difficulty](https://fork.lol/pow/difficulty)

[2]: [https://fork.lol/](https://fork.lol/)

[3]: [https://fork.lol/pow/hashrate](https://fork.lol/pow/hashrate)

[4]:
[https://www.bitcoinabc.org/november](https://www.bitcoinabc.org/november)

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michaelt
Given that the bitcoin community normally seems so enamoured with trustless
systems, I did think it was extremely odd that people went along with Segwit2x
when it was implemented in such a way that the Segwit camp got a trustless
guarantee while the 2x camp got no such guarantee.

After all, if Segwit have already got their payoff, what incentive do they
have to support 2x?

~~~
127
As far as I'm aware the Bitcoin developers never signed the New York
Agreement. It was a group of people and businesses that came together to "fix"
Bitcoin into something they saw an improvement. They just lacked developers
and community support.

~~~
VonGallifrey
As far as I am aware the Bitcoin Core developers are just a group of people
that called their client "reference client" and are themselves very entangled
with Business interests of a particular company. They are not "official" and
have no real authority to call their client "reference client" but somehow
every time someone speaks about the NY Agreement it gets pointed out that
Bitcoin Core has not signed.

Who cares what they signed or didn't sign? They did sign the HK Agreement and
then broke it shortly after. They have proven that they don't give a shit
about such agreements.

NY Agreement didn't lack developers (just not the Bitcoin Core Developers) and
they didn't lack community support. Bitcoin Core is just very good at
controlling communication channels through Censorship and Propaganda.

------
singularity2001
>> Bitcoin Cash is now heavily backed by Chinese traders and miners

I thought cryptocurrencies are fobidden in China now

~~~
carlmr
VPNs and a lot of things are forbidden, it doesn't mean that there aren't a
lot of people in China, and that they let themselves be stopped by minor
roadblocks.

