The ongoing battle between Bitcoin Unlimited and Bitcoin Core continues. For the first time in a while, Bitcoin unlimited support is outpacing SegWit support. Although this may only be a temporary trend, it goes to show the mining world remains undecided on how Bitcoin should evolve. Moreover, it all depends on when you look at the statistics, as support numbers continue to change on a near-hourly basis.
Every time figures like these are made public, a lot of controversy ensues. Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Unlimited remain the top two solutions to advance the Bitcoin network in the coming years. It is up to the miners and companies in the Bitcoin ecosystem to show which solution they prefer. Right now, it seems BU and SegWit are virtually even, which does not help matters much at all. Reaching consensus seems further away than ever before.
Although some recent numbers hint at increasing support for Bitcoin Unlimited, there are some side notes to take into account. First of all, the numbers continue to switch around often, making it difficult to determine if either solution is gaining traction. Secondly, Over 40% of the network nodes run on Bitcoin Core 0.13.1 or 0.13.2. This number clearly favors support for Segregated Witness.
Bitcoin Unlimited Is Not Making Much Progress
Bitcoin Unlimited, on the other hand, represents 7.23% of all network nodes. The number remained nearly the same for several months now. Setting up a BU node is as straightforward as a regular Bitcoin Core node, though. It is unclear why there are so few Bitcoin Unlimited nodes right now. Without enough network nodes to support this development solution, chances of it getting activated on the network remain slim. Moreover, 7.23% is not enough to ‘prevent” SegWit from activating on the network, assuming that will ever happen.
@rogerkver @BitcoinUnlimite @BTCTN @CoinTelegraph @ViaBTC @JihanWu @coinbase @blockchain @xapo @OnChainScaling @BitcoinClassic If 1 person controls 40%+ of hashing power, maybe there needs to be a change. And “Likely users”. Lets look at the nodes. pic.twitter.com/rMIvYsq9TE
— WhalePanda (@WhalePanda) January 18, 2017
Other facts indicating Bitcoin Unlimited is going nowhere anytime soon are not hard to come by. The number of blocks mined clearly favor Bitcoin Core, with 820 to 173. The estimated hashrate for BU is 16.11%, whereas Core has 82.89%. Then again, neither SegWit nor BU is gaining enough traction to increase the Bitcoin block size anytime soon. The status quo continues, and it is doubtful this situation will change anytime soon.
While it is commendable to see multiple branches of Bitcoin development, working toward the same solution, the community remains divided. This will only lead to more internal fighting and bickering, which does not help the Bitcoin ecosystem at all. It will be interesting to see what comes of this situation in the coming months, albeit no significant change are expected tot to take place.
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