On August 25 the largest global bitcoin payment processor, Bitpay, addressed the company’s controversial blog post on Segwit2x last week. The firm received a lot of backlash for advising Bitcore nodes to utilize the BTC1 (Segwit2x) software over the Core client. Now the company reveals why it gave instructions to use the BTC1 version of Bitcoin.
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The Segwit2x Instructions Naturally Upset Some People Who Support Bitcoin Core Software
Last week Bitpay’s blog post stirred up a lot of controversy and many arguments between Segwit2x supporters and Core development supporters. Many bitcoin proponents and luminaries, asked people to boycott the startup, and even called the blog post “illegal” and “fraudulent.” The company was also removed from the Bitcoin.org portal by the website’s administrator Theymos. Now the company is addressing the situation in a follow-up blog post called “Bitpay’s Perspective on Segwit2x.”
“Last week Bitpay published an advisory regarding a double spend risk for developers using non-Segwit compatible nodes of our Bitcoin development platform Bitcore,” explains Bitpay. “We recommended that these developers mitigate double-spend risk by installing a Segwit-compatible boundary node. As our boundary node instructions used the BTC1 version of Bitcoin, this naturally upset some people that support a rival implementation of Bitcoin called Bitcoin Core.”
‘We Must Remain In Sync With the Hashrate Majority Chain’
Bitpay explains that bitcoin miners have adopted Segwit2x software, and they intend to “increase the base block size limit to 2mb in November.” The company assumes that miners will continue to do as they intended, and this means Bitpay must be prepared and stay on the hashrate majority chain. The firm says that the company needs a reliable blockchain to support their infrastructure, and the “backbone network must also be highly available.”
This high-availability requirement means that we must remain in sync with the hashrate majority chain. Block production on a minority fork of Bitcoin would be inconsistent, and it may cease to operate without emergency measures. Such a service interruption is unacceptable for us and for our users.
‘Avoiding Service Interruptions’
The Atlanta-based company understands that bitcoin Core developers have decided not to adopt the Segwit2x protocol. However, Bitpay says if they continued to run Core software and miners continued to adopt the 2MB fork, then they would find themselves on a minority chain. In essence, the company wants to avoid service interruptions, and doing so means following the majority hashrate.
“To avoid an interruption in service, Bitpay must be prepared for an increase in the block size limit in November,” Bitpay adds. “The BTC1 version of the Bitcoin software implements the Segwit2x rules that miners have adopted. Since staying on the hashrate majority chain is a priority for us, we are preparing to deploy that software.”
What do you think about Bitpay’s statements concerning Segwit2x and Core software? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Images via Shutterstock, Bitpay, and Bitcoin.com.
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