Another Split Ahead for Bitcoin?
The cryptocurrency market might best be described these days as “purely lunatic.” With well over 800 such entries in the field, trying to pick sound ones to invest in seems less like a matter for study and more like a job for a drunken monkey with a dartboard. Now, new reports have emerged suggesting that bitcoin may be planning yet another split to complicate the market still further.
Any kind of investment tool whose value gains 300 percent in a single year—it went from around $1,000 in January to just over $4,000 recently—is worth paying closer attention to. That’s leaving aside the unlikely ascension bitcoin took from “10,000 for two pizzas” to reach that first $1,000 mark anyway. The new reports suggest that a third split could be upcoming, leaving us with bitcoin proper, Bitcoin Cash, and then, Segwit2x.
Segwit2x, reports note, is set to be something of a middle ground between bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. Its blockchain ledger will feature two megabyte blocks, which will make it faster than bitcoin, but slower than Bitcoin Cash. It’s a means to increase the transaction block sizes while keeping several witnesses on hand.
It’s hoped, reports suggest, that this splitting of the difference will address some of the issues spotted in bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. If not, further reports suggest that there may well be some more splitting involved until the issue is addressed properly.
Another split would certainly be good news for bitcoin owners, who would get yet another slice of something for nothing. Further splits are even better. What this does, at least from this vantage, is it improves the credibility of bitcoin as an investment medium, if not necessarily as a potential alternative to cash and a mobile payments vehicle. You’ve never seen a world government announce that it was running a currency split, and suddenly everyone who’s got a Botswanian Pula now has a Pula but also a Queekrick, and should report to their nearest bank to collect.
Still though, bitcoin’s done some amazing things so far, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to let up. This might well continue to fuel layman interest in cryptocurrency, and getting the bulk of the laity behind it could mean bit jumps to come.