Bitcoin extended gains to a record, ignoring a split in the cryptocurrency over its future.<\/p>\n
The digital exchange rate jumped as much as 16 percent from Friday to an unprecedented $3,292.41, even after bitcoin\u2019s division last week. The debate has revolved around how to upgrade its underlying technology, with a group of developers backing a solution called SegWit2x against miners — some of whom have created an offshoot called Bitcoin Cash — who want to increase the size of data blocks more drastically.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe miner-orchestrated hard fork has had limited traction and will not impact the price or future development of bitcoin,\u201d said Aurelien Menant, chief executive officer of Gatecoin, a cryptocurrency exchange in Hong Kong, referring to the split. \u201cThe activation of SegWit is a significant milestone in bitcoin\u2019s technological evolution.<\/p>\n
At the heart of the dispute is an issue that has dogged bitcoin\u2019s development: as its popularity grew, transactions slowed because of a cap on the amount of data processed by the blockchain. Under SegWit2x, some of that data will be moved off the main network while block sizes will be doubled to 2 megabytes in November – a quarter of that for Bitcoin Cash.<\/p>\n
While the first step of SegWit2x has been locked in and the technology will probably be adopted at some point in August, infighting could disrupt the transition.<\/p>\n
Click here for a QuickTake Q&A on bitcoin\u2019s split.<\/p>\n
Still, the price of the original bitcoin has risen. Meanwhile, the price of Bitcoin Cash has plummeted 67% from a record high reached last week, CoinMarketCap data show, bolstering the appeal of its older cousin. For now, Bitcoin Cash still pales in comparison to the original asset: the former has a capitalization of $4 billion, compared with the latter\u2019s $53 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe scaling debate is not over yet,\u201d Menant added. \u201cThe promised 2 MB block size increase due in November in accordance with the SegWit2x agreement may still be rejected by certain stakeholders.\u201d<\/p>\n