Bitcoin wallet provider Xapo has said it will not necessarily treat the BTC chain as the ‘real’ Bitcoin, following the SegWit2x hard fork.
Echoing its treatment of Bitcoin Cash in July, Xapo CEO Wences Casares confirmed it would give the BTC ticker to “the chain with the most accumulated difficulty.”
About the Bitcoin SegWit2x update https://t.co/nezg3wDKCi @xapo @fedemurrone
— Wences Casares (@wences) October 10, 2017
“We are going to call the chain with the most accumulated difficulty Bitcoin or BTC,” a blog post issued Monday reads.
“If the minority chain is the one with 1MB blocks we are going to call it BC1 and if the minority chain is the one with 2MB blocks we are going to call it BC2.”
The move is a firm commitment to support the SegWit2x chain if it gains majority consensus, while confusion could equally ensue if users additionally interact with a service calling a different chain ‘BTC.’
Calls to boycott Xapo
Reactions on social media to the decision focussed specifically on this point, users concluding the only way to avert chaos from miners switching between majority support would be to change which chain was ‘BTC.’
Other response were harsher, with well-known Twitter commentator WhalePanda calling for an outright boycott of Xapo.
Tldr; avoid @xapo. Their "Bitcoin" might not be real Bitcoin. Use trustworthy exchanges that protect users instead. https://t.co/YaR8M2mmTU
— WhalePanda (@WhalePanda) October 10, 2017
Bitcoin holders meanwhile are still waiting for commitments from other major wallet providers. Coinbase has notably stayed silent on the issue, with only former engineer Charlie Lee offering insight into what will likely happen when the fork occurs on Nov. 18.
Xapo did not mention this month’s forthcoming Bitcoin Gold fork.