Hi everyone. In this article, we'll be going over lots of Bitcoin-related news from a possible second BTC hard fork, the implementation of Segregated Witness, and more.

A November Bitcoin Hard Fork?

In this segment, we'll be discussing news from Segwit2x developers on a possible Bitcoin Hard Fork in November.

The First Fork

On the first of August this year, a fork of the Bitcoin blockchain was created, dubbed "Bitcoin Cash." Bitcoin Cash was a new crypto that kept the transaction history of Bitcoin until the fork, and had a few new rules, such as eight-megabyte blocks, and no support for Segregated Witness (Segwit). Bitcoin Cash is currently trading at about $300 USD (Bitcoin, the original crypto, is currently trading at upwards of $4300). Bitcoin Cash was advertised as many things, ranging from lower fees to "free money," and whether its launch was a success or not is subjective and is totally up to you.

So, put simply, a fork is when the Bitcoin blockchain at its current state is copied over to a new cryptocurrency, usually created because some users/miners/developers want new rules implemented but don't have a full consensus on the core blockchain yet.

Block 494784

Segwit2x developers have just announced on this website that a hard fork is coming in November 2017 (at Block 494784), upgrading the block size to 2 MB. Many wallets should be ready for the fork by November, and the blog post claims that lots of SPV wallets won't even need many changes to comply.

The Segwit2x agreement was signed in May at the New York Agreement, promising a 2MB block size increase with Segwit support by six months after the agreement. The actual fork itself will consist of a block with a size greater than 1 MB and at most 2 MB being created at block 494,784. In order to join the Segwit2x fork, clients, nodes, and miners will have to place blocks after/over the initial fork block, deviating from the original/core blockchain and completing the fork. The fork's predicted date is around mid-November of this year.

Summary

To summarize, this is likely how the cryptocurrencies will look in November if the fork is successful:

Cryptocurrency	SegWit Support?	Block Size
Bitcoin	Yes	1 MB
Bitcoin Cash	No	8 MB
SegWit2x Fork	Yes	2 MB

It's unknown how this will affect the price/volatility/market of any of the cryptos.

SegWit is Coming

In other news, SegWit is coming very soon to the main Bitcoin blockchain, after being locked in very recently. Around August 23rd, 2017, the Difficulty Adjustment Period will close and BIP 141 (Segregated Witness) will activate. Check this website for a detailed and live view of when Segwit will activate.

Segregated Witness (usually abbreviated as "SegWit") is a process coined by Dr. Pieter Wuille, in which the block size on the blockchain is increased by separating (segregating) signature data from transactions. SegWit claims to have quite a few benefits, including allowing for malleability fixes and projects such as the Lightning Network to work.

The Lightning Network is a project allowing for lightning-fast Bitcoin payment networks with very low fees, and can only work well with SegWit integration. SegWit may also theoretically lead to lower transaction fees and faster confirmation times.

Bitcoin Price Update

Bitcoin is currently still trading above the $4300 mark, and doing quite well despite some fluctuations in the past day.

While many were wondering when the "inevitable" price correction would come, Bitcoin has shown great liquidity and strength in the past few weeks allowing some investors to change that "when" to an "if." Meanwhile, more price predictions are coming in, as the "goalposts" for Bitcoin set by Standpoint have been moved to $7500.

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Thanks for reading,
— @mooncryption

note: Many people find the Bitcoin Cash and/or SegWit2x forks a polarizing topic, so I wanted to state that the goal of this article was to stay unbiased on both sides and simply inform/educate users about this information rather than persuade them to either side. :)

note two: The Bitcoin Fork image was from the Cex.io Blog, and the SegWit image was the official logo for SegWit.