When it comes to making bitcoin scale in the future, the jury is still on as to which concept will activate on the network. Bitcoin Unlimited saw some increased support these past few weeks, yet it appears things have quieted down once again. Segregated Witness has gained some much needed support the past few days, although we are still far away from seeing it activate.
Slightly More Support For SegWit Right Now
Supporters of either scaling solution are always keen to look at the support statistics for the previous 1,000 blocks on the network. While this is not necessarily the best indicator it does present some level of consensus among bitcoin miners all over the world. In this particular case, SegWit support has increased to 27.8%, a small step forward compared to the “traditional” 23% support line.
Looking at Bitcoin Unlimited, it appears its support has dwindled by quite a margin. Not too long ago, BU had 20% network support, yet is now only represented by 15.8%. No man overboard just yet, but it goes to show things are slowly evolving in favor of SegWit. Then again, if that concept does not reach the activation threshold, it will still be seen as a moral victory for Unlimited supporters.
Unfortunately for SegWit supporters, the scaling solution will not activate unless 95% network consensus is achieved. Reaching that threshold will be virtually impossible, considering the pools supporting Bitcoin Unlimited represent more than 5% of the network hashrate. While 27.6% is a step in the right direction, it is still no overwhelming vote of confidence by any stretch of the imagination.
It is evident the political jousting in the bitcoin ecosystem will continue for quite some time to come. Scaling bitcoin should have been done months ago, yet we remain at a status quo for the time being. In a few weeks from now, Unlimited support will soar again for some unknown reason and the discussion goes back to square one. In the end, most of the miners and pools don’t favor either solution, which is still a problem no one seems willing to address right now.
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