A mysterious individual or group operating under the name “BitPico” has vowed that it will activate the SegWit2x hard fork as planned despite the decision by leading proponents to suspend the controversial scaling proposal indefinitely.

As CCN reported on Wednesday, a group of leading SegWit2x advocates — including developer Jeff Garzik, project lead Mike Belshe, and Bitmain CEO Jihan Wu — published a joint statement calling off the hard fork until consensus for the upgrade could be achieved. With these influential personalities calling for the fork’s suspension, the community breathed a sigh of relief that a blockchain split had been avoided — or at least postponed.

However, at least one entity is vowing to activate the hard fork as scheduled. That person or group is BitPico, a hitherto unknown entity that has nevertheless been active on the SegWit2x mailing list.

Here is BitPico’s full statement, which was sent as a reply to the joint statement calling off the fork:

“We are carrying out the fork regardless as everything is set in motion. Backing down the difficulty right now is a strategy. Wonder why 30% network hash-rate disappeared?  It’s ours; the miners that will continue what is set in motion… A handful of humans cannot stop what they have no control over…”

Who is BitPico?

The most significant part of BitPico’s threat to execute SegWit2x is that he, she, or they control 30% of the bitcoin hashrate and have made it disappear from the network. But despite this bold claim, no one is quite sure who or what BitPico is. This, coupled with several other observations, makes the vow that the hard fork will activate as scheduled appear dubious.

First, BitPico did not sign the New York Agreement (NYA) that set SegWit2x into motion, nor was it publicly “shamed” by Bitcoin.org in its list of SegWit2x supporters. Were BitPico really as influential as it claims, there would certainly be more evidence of its existence.

Second, BitPico claimed in an email last month that their pool accounted for 1.72% of the global hashrate and that they were in the process of adding another 3-4% by the end of October. So by their own admission, that would mean that their share of the hashrate had grown by at least 24% in less than two weeks — a highly unlikely scenario, especially considering that this group has very little online footprint aside from a vacant Github repository and a sparsely-used Twitter feed.

Third, although the hash rate has made a minor decline since Wednesday, the dip is nowhere near 30% and is most likely part of the network’s normal fluctuations.

Finally, the threat appears hollow even if you accept the group’s claim its software is “enterprise-grade,” which is why it has not been active on Github. Even if the group did account for 30% of the hashrate, that would not be enough to make SegWit2x the “chain with the most accumulated difficulty,” which is the standard that SegWit2x-supporting companies such as Xapo and Coinbase stated they would use to determine which blockchain is “Bitcoin”.

Taking these factors into consideration, it does not appear that one should take BitPico’s threat to activate SegWit2x seriously.

News is breaking late tonight following an e-mail sent out to the Segwit2x e-mail list.

A developer going by "bitpico" says the fork is still on, backed with a 30% hash rate.  The e-mail reads as follows:

We are carrying out the fork regardless as everything is set in motion. Backing down the difficulty right now is a strategy. Wonder why 30% network hash-rate disappeared?  It’s ours; the miners that will continue what is set in motion... A handful of humans cannot stop what they have no control over...- Sent from my Space Ship

The e-mail that went out late Wednesday night.

We found a user who appears to be the same person on the forums at BitcoinTalk.org, posting similar messages:

Majority miners never claimed to have backed out of SegWit2x. It is not cancelled nor can it be...
and...
A handful of people cannot "call off" a hard fork. The miners decide...

Still unclear how legitimate his claims are.  If this is one disappointed Segwit2x fan, or someone really speaking for a large pool of miners.

Also surprising - Segwit2x futures are also slowly rising late tonight to $350 after reaching a low of $146 earlier today.

Most importantly though - the concerns around Segwit2x was it's bold goal to replace Bitcoin, that issue is closed for now, and needless to say even if these miners statements are true - at best with this 'no consensus needed' attitude they're just creating an altcoin.

https://bitcoin2x.org/
for serious

below 7000 soon

So now Bitcoin is stuck with 1mb forever.

The Lies and Censorship crew have won.

Meanwhile, Lightning Network is at-least "18 months" away from being deployed.

Are you guys ready for $100+ fees?

This is the "settlement layer" you wanted. Forget Satoshi's Bitcoin, now BTC is a store of value only coin. Who cares about commerce or competing with banks or actually trying to change the world, right?

One spit away from becoming parabolic on log... Amazing!
Maybe it can still happen, one week to go to the fork

You achieve that with consensus and a smooth upgrade that carries everyone along with you. Not detonating a bomb which kills half the crowd you depend on to eat which is what 2X is.

"#Bitcoin was created so you can buy a Lambo. Not a cup of coffee #No2x"
Quote of the day

No problem here you go:

Are you really declaring your ownership of BTC? OMG.  

None until you sell.

Pretty sure mined coins are taxed as regular income - not at the capital gains rate.

I'm trying to work that out with my accountant now. Wanted to dump all my BCH to pay off a mortgage and he's trying to wrap his head around the cost-basis and tax implications.