Bitcoin Industry Could Head for Another Split in November

Bloomberg is reporting that the bitcoin industry may be heading for another split or “fork” in November. The opposing groups involved in the cryptocurrency’s blockchain are unable to come to a consensus on the way forward as far as handling the growing number of transactions occurring in the network.

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It was only in August that the network had split leading to a “main” bitcoin and another version which came to be known as Bitcoin Cash. This split increased the size of the network but it also meant that some of the miners and traders moved to Bitcoin Cash and the main bitcoin network did lose out their resources.

Bloomberg’s piece highlights that certain experts believe the new split is likely to be a lot more disruptive than the one in August.

Opposing Groups Unable to Compromise

The Bitcoin Core developers, who constitute some of the biggest miners and developers who were responsible for the original network, cannot agree with the newer SegWit2X group on how to deal with the congestion in the network, which has led to increased payout times and fees as well.

The SegWit2x developers push for another split in November which could lead to a third version of bitcoin being created and would lead to more miners and capital fleeing from the original version.

The event is not certain yet as the groups are trying to work out a compromise but so far there are no signs of a deal. The report states that there are many experts who believe that the split will occur.

What remains to be seen is how many of the miners and developers move to the newer network as the one which has the higher support is likely to be considered as the real bitcoin and would have the capacity to survive for longer.

Samson Mow, chief strategy officer at Blockstream, which has close associations with Core developers commented to Bloomberg: “Many developers, users, miners, and businesses have already stated they do not agree with the pointless 2x fork, so we’ll likely end up with three chains. Long-term, only the main bitcoin chain which has the support of users and developers can survive.”