Describing SegWit2x and its native cryptocurrency B2X a “shitcoin” is an extreme way of portraying its contentious nature. But, experts and business executives like Xu have publicly condemned SegWit2x because it has been branded as a network upgrade.
Based on the initial NYA agreement and the SegWit2x hard fork proposal, it has been made clear that SegWit2x is not an upgrade proposal but a fork specifically structured to lead to a chain split, and the creation of another cryptocurrency.
Star Xu, the CEO of OKCoin, the largest bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange in China, has publicly condemned SegWit2x, describing it as a “shitcoin.”
Xu stated:
“Personal advice is B2X should not be listed. It’s a shitcoin but remove replay attacks protection.”
Charlie Lee, the creator of Litecoin and former Coinbase executive, agreed with the statement of Xu, criticizing its lack of strong replay protection and the contentious nature of the SegWit2x hard fork.
SegWit2x and its Contentious Nature
Despite the decline in support from the bitcoin community, mining industry, and businesses, the SegWit2x development team will pursue the hard fork on November 16. Several executives such as Bitso’s Daniel Vogel expressed his concerns over such lack of consensus in the SegWit2x hard fork, as he stated:
“Given this is a technical mailing list, I would urge everyone to rethink the S2X code from a technical perspective. The code base was written as an upgrade to Bitcoin. I believe there is enough hard data out there to make it clear that S2X is no longer an upgrade. F2Pool backed down Slush Pool was never in ViaBTC said none of their customers are requesting S2X BTC.top said they will just mine whatever is more profitable When do we stop and rethink? When we get to less than 50% hashing power?”
Why is Xu’s Statement Notable?
Some of the major supporters of the SegWit2x hard fork are based in China, such as Bitmain’s Antpool, ViaBTC, BTC.com, and BTC.TOP, which represent around 60 percent of bitcoin’s global hash rate. Xu is the second executive of a leading Chinese cryptocurrency company to publicly oppose the SegWit2x hard fork, apart from Wang Chun of F2Pool.
Whether F2Pool and OKCoin’s criticism of the SegWit2x hard fork in November will trigger the Chinese mining community to stall or reject the Segwit2x hard fork remains uncertain. At this phase of development, it is highly likely that the SegWit2x hard fork will continue as planned, given the support from the four major mining pools and large-scale bitcoin businesses including Coinbase and Blockchain.
However, it is also important to acknowledge that some of the most influential figures within the Chinese bitcoin market have started to speak out against the SegWit2x hard fork.
