Bitcoin Segwit, BIP148 and Segwit2x

Interesting article about Segwit, BIP148 and Segwit2x

The New York Agreement, also known as Segwit2x,  is finally being signaled by the boasted 80+% of the hash power that  has agreed to it. This compromise will hopefully bring an end to the  years of debate over which path is the best to scale Bitcoin.  

The Compromise

As many of our readers may know, an agreement was reached last month  between many of the most prominent mining pools in Bitcoin to finally  end the infighting and agree on a method in which to scale Bitcoin to  accommodate the increased use of the network.  The two leading solutions, the activation of Segregated Witness and a simple 2mb blocksize increase, have been combined in Segwit2x.  The way the compromise will work is that Segwit will be activated by  the miners, and then ninety days later a hardfork will occur that  increases the blocksize to 2MB. Since Monday, signaling for the compromise has skyrocketed to just around 88% of the hash power.  Segwit2x itself only requires 80% of the hash power, but the more  mining pools on board, the less likely a chain split will happen when  the hard fork comes about.  

UASF – A Shove in the Right Direction

While the support of the miners is finally being thrown behind the  Segwit2x agreement, there is still a growing number of users that  support the BIP 148 UASF.  The UASF is a change that, as of August 1st, will begin to invalidate  all blocks mined that are not signaling for Segwit, unless Segwit is  already activated by this time. While on the surface it appears that the Segwit2x agreement will  nullify BIP 148 from really doing anything, many people are still  vocally trying to gain support for the proposal. As it stands, the  current signaling for Segwit2x is not actual lock-in signaling. It is  simply the intention to signal. The actual signaling isn’t supposed to  begin until July 21st.  Many of the people still running their BIP 148 nodes don’t think that  the miners will follow through with the agreement and continue to block  Segwit. Continuing to run BIP 148 is a way of “holding their feet to  the fire” and make sure they follow through on the agreement, or at  least the Segwit part of it. The main goal for all parties involved is to avoid a chain split in  fear that the price of Bitcoin would drop significantly. If BIP 148 does  come into effect, and Segwit isn’t activated by August 1st, this will  cause a chain split – one chain with Segwit activated and one without  Segwit. On the other hand, if some of the hash power decided to mine the  legacy chain after the 2MB hardfork that could also end up causing a  chain split.

Here is a link to the article: http://bitcoinist.com/growing-support-for-segwit2x-amid-bip-148-uasf-concerns/

I haven't written the article nor have I been involved in writing this article in any kind of way. It's just an interesting article I wanted to share with the community.