Bitcoin's testnet with the new SegWit2x protocol has caused the network to fork into two completely different and totally incompatible networks.

The New York Agreement between the large Bitcoin miners, establishes the installation of the btc1 software, which has been developed by the experts of Bitcoin Core. The implementation of this establishes a new framework with respect to the one they have had up to now, which implies that the nodes connected to btc1 have higher processing limits in the testnet. Working with btc1 has no major implications until the Hardfork is released. During the tests something has happened that has surprised and is an accidental fork within the testnet, caused by SegWit2x, which has caused the activation of two different and incompatible networks.

The situation has arisen within the Bitcoin community that operates with miners, that when executing the nodes of the old Bitcoin network, everything went smoothly, but those that operated with the SegWit2x code, which is in beta phase, registered problems from of block 27070. This caused an inactivity of about 20 hours, causing that all the miners that were operating under SegWit2x, did not mine anything during that time. If this had happened in the primary network, people could have lost all their capital.

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Then the specialized forums and chats have burned after this failed attempt to demonstrate the capabilities of SegWit2x, a green protocol, which has had a very short test phase, if we compare it with the one developed by Bitcoin Core. The criticisms of SegWit2x are focused on pointing out the errors, which were intended to be feedback to improve the development of Bitcoin, which by the SegWit2x developers have been completely overlooked, being ignored.

There is a side that states that the SegWit2x software, which has an element to increase the sizes of the blocks found on the network, after three months of the activation of the SegWit code, makes it impossible for everyone to agree with The plan, because a large part of the community, which is not represented by the large mining pools, wants to adhere to any plan that keeps the blocks at 1MB and makes the network change as little as possible.

The tension reigns between these two aspects of how Bitcoin should be constituted, which creates a lot of uncertainty and more after the real possibility of a strong fork that divides the network into two completely different assets. This situation could cause one blockchain to be erased or another to be rewritten, in the event that the division is not permanent. The route time signed in New York establishes that on July 21, SegWit2x will already be able to be used in the main Bitcoin network, something that after what happened, does not seem like a very good idea.

We must bear in mind that the testnet has quite a few limitations, among them and the most notorious, is that the transactions of this network are not equivalent in volume to that of the main Bitcoin network. This could cause the pool memory, which is where the operations that have not yet been confirmed are stored, could alter the results of the tests performed, which would not have a similar effect on the main network.

Jeff Garzik has copied to everyone who works at SegWit2x that 'although unexpectedly, this is good field work'. Furthermore, he added that 'this is the reason for a testnet, after all'.

The nervousness of the network due to the activation of SegWit2x in the primary Bitcoin network on July 21 through the btc1 software, is creating a notorious discomfort within the community, something that is reflected in the movements of the cryptocurrency market. Be that as it may, we are facing a difficult moment in which anything can happen.

Source: Github