Support for Segregated Witness continues to build, as Japanese exchange Coincheck has indicated they are ready for activation. Right now, the company is monitoring activation progress, but all of their servers and clients are updated to accommodate the shift to SegWit when the time arises. They are also the first Japanese exchange to publicly acknowledge they will support SegWit.
Coincheck is Ready For SegWit, Assuming it Activates
It has been some time since we last heard anything from Coincheck, even though the Japanese Bitcoin exchange is doing quite well in its own right. Not too long ago, a company official mentioned how Coincheck is ready for Segregated Witness activation, assuming that Bitcoin development fork ever occurs. Right now, that remains somewhat unlikely, as overall support is hovering around 30% for quite some time now.
We are ready for #Segwit. Monitoring activation progress. @kagayakii @coincheckjp @34ro
— Yusuke Otsuka (@yusuke_56) January 14, 2017
What is rather intriguing is how Coincheck had previously not hinted at supporting SegWit, for some unknown reason. In fact, a lot of companies remain on the bubble on whether or not they should prepare SegWit support at this stage. Then again, the longer these companies hold off, the longer it will take to know if SegWit will be activated or not.
Speaking of the list of businesses and service providers supporting Segregated Witness very little has changed over the past few weeks. There are still just over 90 companies listed who have integrated SegWit support or are working towards achieving it. Of the companies working on integrating, nearly none of them have sped up the process in recent weeks. It seems things are at a status quo, which is not necessarily a positive development.
In fact, the number of SegWit-enabled blocks discovered on the networks has dropped below 30%. While this is not a worrying sign just yet, it also goes to show things are not moving ahead all that much. For the time being, it remains unclear of Segregated Witness will ever be activated on the network, to begin with. Reaching the necessary network support will be quite challenging, considering how support charts have flattened out as of late.
Japan remains a very important area for Bitcoin moving forward. With the PBOC cracking down on Chinese exchange margin trading, it is expected a lot of traders will shift to Japanese platforms in the future. For now, the country is less strict regarding regulation in this regard, but that situation can change at any given time. It is good to see Coincheck acknowledge their SegWit support, though.
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