The transaction confirmation time in the Bitcoin network is gradually increasing. Experts believe that the whole thing is in the influx of participants - the system is simply not designed for the number of users that is currently working on it. All this can lead to sad consequences. For example, bitcoins, received after a network failure, may disappear from the wallet or become a different type of crypto-currency, fork (of course, not independently), which will not be accepted by sellers and different kinds of services.
But as soon as the situation can be resolved properly, everything will be in place. The transaction confirmation time will be the same. Here are only solutions to the problem can be several. Today, the community of creators and users of creators discusses such an opportunity as the use of a new protocol for the entire network. The decision should be before 1 August this year. The date of August 1 is critical, the future of Bitcoin will depend on what will happen on that day.
Generally speaking, there are two most popular solutions to the problem that are being discussed. The first is offered by supporters of the camp Bitcoin Unlimited (BU), the second is Segregated Witness (SegWit). On July 21, a new SegWit2x protocol will be presented, which will be requested by most miners. If by the end of the month, by August 1, the overwhelming majority of market participants, namely about 80%, will go to it, then everything is well. If less, then there may well be a situation where two types of crypto-illate bitcoin arise - one based on the protocol SegWit2x, the second one will remain on the old protocol.
So far, most market participants agree with the fact that
Segregated Witness (Segwit2x) is a decent way out of the situation. This solution was offered by the Bitcoin Core Developer team, supported by the largest mining pools from China. In particular, the transition to Segwit2x is considered necessary by OKCoin, Huobi, BTCCPool, Bitmain, F2Pool, BTC.Top, ViaBTC, BiXin, BW, 1Hash, Canoe, BATPool, Bitkan and others.
SegWit allows you to optimize the block size, which in the future will also solve problems with the scalability bitcoin network, which is now overflowing with transaction blocks. In particular, the time of confirmation of transactions will decrease, accordingly, commissions will decrease. SegWit is a protocol that allows you to increase the block cache efficiency without increasing the block size.
At present, the block size is 1 megabyte, the transaction processing speed is 7 units per second. For comparison, the Visa system processes thousands of transactions per second. If the block size decreases, this will increase the cost of transactions on blockade, which can frighten ordinary users of the system.
Segregated Witness allows you to retrieve the signature of a transaction, placing it in an autonomous data structure. If the signature of the transaction is deleted, the transaction size is reduced. Thus, the confirmation time can be reduced by 47%. Accordingly, the system will process twice as many transactions per unit time as before switching to the new protocol.
SegWit will increase the security of the system. With the introduction of the new protocol, the security of the participants will be secured with the help of the method of fraud proof, which is especially relevant for so-called "light wallets".
Another solution is the UASF, which also launches the Segregated Witness, but its support will be provided by the nodes, not the miners.
In general, if a consensus can be found, no split will occur, and the system will run normally. If Bitcoin is divided into two parts, then there will be various difficulties, including the possible refusal to accept one species of bitcoins by the supporters of another. The course will be very volatile, especially if there are not two but four types of this crypto currency. It's about
Bitcoin 148, NewPoW Bitcoin, Bitcoin ABC and Legacy Bitcoin. If this happens, the exchanges may suspend all types of operations for an indefinite period of time.
WHAT TO DO
The following steps are recommended:
1. Stop accepting payments in bitcoins for 12 hours until 1 August 2017 02:00:00 GMT + 0200. After a couple of days you can try again to start the process of receiving payments;
2. If you are about to send a payment at about this time, remember that exchanges and processing services may stop working;
3. It is not necessary to store your bitcoins on the exchange, which does not allow to create local copies of private keys;
4. It is not necessary to buy bitcoins shortly before August 1st. Volatility can be very high.
5. Payments that arrive on your wallet on August 1 may simply disappear, so it is not necessary to conduct operations at this time;
6. It is also not recommended to pay someone for anything on August 1.