Bitcoin Core developers issue Hard Fork warning

On Wednesday morning, the Bitcoin Core development team released a rare statement concerning the safety of Bitcoin users’ coins during the potential hard fork for Segwit2x, which is scheduled to occur in November.

The developers state that the hard fork is not supported by the majority of the Bitcoin users and developers, which makes it contentious, and therefore puts many user's bitcoins at risk if they store them with the wrong services. “By adopting this hard fork,” the announcement states, “we believe the supporters of this agreement are shifting their users to an alternative currency (an altcoin) which is incompatible with Bitcoin.”

Bitcoin’s developers strongly advise against storing coins on services such as Coinbase, Bitpay and Xapo since the coins may be renamed to something else or replaced with a new altcoin that is not bitcoin. Currently, 43 services intend to leave bitcoin for the new blockchain (the complete list can be obtained here).

“By adopting this hard fork, we believe the supporters of this agreement are shifting their users to an alternative currency which is incompatible with Bitcoin."

— Bitcoin Core development team

The major difference in the Segwit2x hard fork that sets it apart from many previous hard forks — such as the one for Bitcoin Cash in August — is that many major bitcoin infrastructure providers including wallets and exchanges support this fork.

A majority of bitcoin mining hashrate is in support of the fork as well, which at the very least will slow down the production of bitcoin’s blocks as the miners fork the blockchain and depart bitcoin in favor of mining the new chain. The rate that block production will slow down to is unknown, however, it is currently estimated to drop to as low as 15 percent of its current speed. This will lead to slower transactions and higher fees until the matter is resolved.

https://bravenewcoin.com/news/bitcoin-core-developers-issue-segwit2x-hard-fork-warning/