Charlie Lee Openly Opposes SegWit2x

Debates surrounding SegWit2x are heating up as the proposed activation deadline draws closer. Although a lot of people have no love lost for this scaling solution, a large part of the mining community still intends to support it. Charlie Lee, the creator of Litecoin, is making it clear that he has no intention to support SegWit2x now or in the future. It will be interesting to see how things play out in this regard.

Charlie Lee Doesn’t Approve of SegWit2x

It is evident we will see more discussion of SegWit2x in the coming weeks. This scaling proposal has been considered highly controversial from day one. While the activation of Segregated Witness was one thing that everyone could agree on, increasing the block size to 2MB come November is something not everyone likes. That is only to be expected, as SegWit represents a transaction throughput capacity increase already.

Moreover, several parties to the New York Agreement (NYA) have removed their support for SegWit2x over the past few weeks. F2Pool stopped mining NYA blocks a while ago, yet it is seemingly back on board as we speak. Slush Pool clearly opposes SegWit2x right now, although it appears to be in the minority. In fact, it is the only top mining pool to be ignoring this scaling solution, as all other large pools are seemingly signaling support for the New York Agreement right now.

Do keep in mind these pools only signal the intent to support this scaling solution. Whether or not this means over 93% of all Bitcoin mining hashpower would switch over to SegWit2x if it were to become a separate currency and blockchain remains highly unlikely. Then again, stranger things have happened in the world of cryptocurrency. The coming weeks will prove pretty interesting in this regard.

One person openly rejecting SegWit2x right now is none other than Charlie Lee. To many people, that comes as a big surprise, considering how Lee has no real “beef’ in this game whatsoever. Litecoin successfully activated Segregated Witness on its network as well, and has seen a proper value appreciation because of it. A split in the Bitcoin world between the main chain and SegWit2x supporters may very well be catastrophic. It is doubtful that Lee’s words will carry much weight in this regard.

However, Lee does raise a valid point in that “miners and businesses cannot change Bitcoin without user consensus.” It is certainly true that most users do not like SegWit2x or what it stands for. Most exchanges and service providers also have little to no intention of supporting this implementation in the future. LocalBitcoins, for one, has made its stance perfectly clear, as it will not support future “Bitcoin airdrops” whatsoever. 

Without consent from the overall community, SegWit2x shouldn’t even be discussed in the first place. Right now, it appears to be yet another power grab by a mining community trying to impose its vision upon the rest of us. Rest assured a lot more will be said about this scaling solution before November comes around. Many people doubt the viability of SegWit2x as a whole, but that doesn’t mean it will go away quietly either.