Just over a week away of the next coming Hard Fork with Bitcoin SegWit2x chain and another chain will be created known as Bitcoin Gold.

Bitcoin Gold

IMO this just seems like a cash grab and it seems a majority of the Bitcoin community is not showing support for this coin.

There are not much-added features that make this coin that is appealing. I give them credit for attempting to shake up the mining centralization with ASIC miners but is still an inefficient use of resources.

• Will use Equihash PoW so it will be GPU minable.
• Replay protection built-in since it is a direct fork of BTC.
• Variable difficulty that will change per block.
• Pre-mined coins for 16,000 blocks.
  https://github.com/BTCGPU/BTCGPU/pull/2

From the looks of the future of crypto, POS(Proof-Of-Stake) is the way to go. Ethereum is moving over to POS consensus but perhaps Ether miners may migrate to Bitcoin Gold or another GPU minable coin.

According to Live Bitcoin News:

No Exchange or Wallet Supports Bitcoin Gold 10 Days Before the Fork

Segwit2x

Their goal is to bring minimal changes, stability, and increase block size to 2 MB. This is great but Bitcoin Cash has their block size to 8 MB and with the look of POS taking over as the more efficient consensus algorithm, is this what Bitcoin really needs?

Additionally, having the Lightning Network is making these Hard Forks seem less necessary.

For more info on Segwit2x, you can check out these recent articles:

http://www.bitcoinprice.com/news/need-know-segwit2x-hard-fork/

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/bitcoin-beginners-guide-surviving-bgold-and-segwit2x-forks/

Many exchanges made their statement in support for both chains, including Coinbase.

From The Coinbase Blog:

Update on the Bitcoin SegWit2x hard fork

We wanted to give our customers an update on the upcoming Bitcoin SegWit2x hard fork in November 2017. You can read more about what a digital currency fork is here.

We operate by the principle that our customers should benefit to the greatest extent possible from hard forks or other unexpected events. This is essential in our mission to make Coinbase the most trusted, safe, and easy-to-use digital currency exchange.

Customers with bitcoin balances stored on Coinbase at the time of the fork will have access to bitcoin on both blockchains. There is no action required from customers and bitcoin can be securely stored on Coinbase before, during, and after the fork.

After the fork, we will enable access when we have determined each blockchain is secure and stable. We expect this to happen within a few days after the fork, but it may take longer if additional risks emerge.

We are currently working on the engineering and security requirements for each bitcoin blockchain — as well as continuing the work to enable Bitcoin Cash withdrawals.

In the coming weeks — nearer to the date of the fork — we will provide a more detailed plan for how Coinbase will approach naming the two Bitcoin blockchains.

-Dan Romero [VP Ops @ Coinbase]

A list of other exchanges know to support Segwit2x from bitcoin.org:

• 1Hash (China)
• Abra (United States)
• ANX (Hong Kong)
• Bitangel.com /Chandler Guo (China)
• BitClub Network (Hong Kong)
• Bitcoin.com (St. Kitts & Nevis)
• Bitex (Argentina)
• bitFlyer (Japan)
• Bitfury (United States)
• Bitmain (China)
• BitPay (United States)
• BitPesa (Kenya)
• BitOasis (United Arab Emirates)
• Bitso (Mexico)
• Bixin.com (China)
• Blockchain (UK)
• Bloq (United States)
• BTC.com (China)
• BTCC (China)
• BTC.TOP (China)
• BTER.com (China)
• Circle (United States)
• Civic (United States)
• Coinbase (United States)
• Coins.ph (Philipines)
• CryptoFacilities (UK)
• Decentral (Canada)
• Digital Currency Group (United States)
• Filament (United States)
• Genesis Global Trading (United States)
• Genesis Mining (Hong Kong)
• GoCoin (Isle of Man)
• Grayscale Investments (United States)
• Jaxx (Canada)
• Korbit (South Korea)
• Luno (Singapore)
• MONI (Finland)
• Netki (United States)
• OB1 (United States)
• Purse (United States)
• Ripio (Argentina)
• Safello (Sweden)
• SFOX (United States)
• ShapeShift (Switzerland)
• SurBTC (Chile)
• Unocoin (India)
• Veem (United States)
• ViaBTC (China)
• Xapo (United States)
• Yours (United States)

So Many Forking Versions of Bitcoin

After this Hard Fork, we will have:

• Bitcoin
• Bitcoin(Segwit2x)
• Bitcoin Cash
• Bitcoin Gold

Also other versions such as:

• Bitcoin Plus
• Bitcoin Classic
• Bitcoin Unlimited
• And so on

This is getting ridiculous IMO and this could be making things more confusing for those that are new to Bitcoin and crypto-currency in general. It's great that we are trying to innovate and be competitive but I think this is doing more harm than good for the future of Bitcoin itself. This may be the start of an Alt-Coin to take over the reigns that Bitcoin has and we could see a different coin at #1.




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