AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
https://mybroadband.co.za/news/cryptocurrency/232201-bitcoin-gold-the-next-fork-for-bitcoin.html
LUNO EXCHANGE
Local exchange Luno said the proposed fork appears to be a reaction to the dissatisfaction many feel with the current Bitcoin mining landscape. “It seems that not a month goes by without confused messages in the Bitcoin community about yet another Bitcoin fork,” said Luno.
Luno said that since Bitcoin is an open technology, the various parties with a stake in the blockchain can disagree on proposals to improve it.“They might even agree about a problem – say, fixing slow Bitcoin transactions – but disagree about how to solve it.”
As Bitcoin is software, developers can fork from its current software branch and bring a new version into existence when disagreements happen. This is how a fork takes place. If you have Bitcoin before the fork, you will keep your Bitcoin and receive an equivalent amount of the new coin after the fork – as was the case with the Bitcoin Cash fork.
“In the case of Bitcoin Cash, there was significant interest from the community. It was listed on multiple reputable exchanges, and the price traded above 0.1 BTC for months.” As a result, Luno provided the ability to withdraw and sell Bitcoin Cash.
If there is a fork that isn’t embraced by a significant portion of the community, Luno will not provide support for it.
“Many forks come with various security risks, which could result in the loss of funds.”
Luno said that Bitcoin Gold currently appears to lack enough community support to gain traction.
Another fork scheduled to happen in November will see Bitcoin adopt a scaling solution called SegWit2x.
CEO of Bitcoin.com Roger Ver believes that SegWit2x won’t be a simple switch, and that Bitcoin will fork again as the community debates how best to scale the blockchain. Luno disagrees with Ver’s assessment, saying there is significant miner and platform support for SegWit2x.
THE TABLE BELOW SUMMARISES LUNO’S POSITION ON THE VARIOUS FORKS.
PROPOSAL DATE STATUS
BITCOIN UNLIMITED Apr 2017 Lost support. No fork.
SEGWIT Jul 2017 Majority support. Implemented without fork.
BITCOIN CASH Aug 2017 Forked. Luno added BCH withdrawal and sell ability.
BITCOIN GOLD 25 Oct 2017 Monitoring. Currently appears to lack sufficient community traction.
SEGWIT2X Nov 2017 Monitoring. Significant miner and platform support.
