What did Bitpay do to cause public outrage overnight?

Yesterday, Bitcoin payment processing company Bitpay published a blog post about Segwit2x. The post caused quite a bit of controversy within the Bitcoin community.

Bitpay guides users to upgrade to BTC1 client

The article is titled “What Bitcore users need to prepare before Segregated Witness activation”. The article explains the upcoming Segwit2x consensus process in detail to its Bitcore users. However, the article refers to the BTC1 software (i.e. Segwit2x client) as an upgrade form for Bitcore full nodes.

Some Bitcoin supporters and developers, including Peter Todd, Tuur Demeester, Francis Pouliot, John Carvalho, and Rodolfo Novak‏, immediately expressed anger at Bitpay's recommendation of options other than the Core reference code. Developer Peter Todd called Bitpay's statement "deceptive" and even planned to sue. Developer Eric Lombrozo told his Twitter followers to publicly boycott any company that supports Segwit2x. Whether it is major forums or social media, the blog post has brought endless debate.

Bitcoin.org wants to remove Bitpay

Then, Bitcoin.org owners decided to file a pull request to remove Bitpay’s services and Copay wallet from the site’s wallet recommendation page. Bitcoin.org operator and r/bitcoin moderator Theymos explained that Bitpay was promoting “deceptive” software.

Theymos said:

Bitpay is deceiving people by disguising BTC1 as the Bitcoin software that people need to upgrade. This is unethical and violates bitcoin.org's hard fork policy.

Therefore, this pull request requests the removal of Bitpay and its software and services Copay and Bitcore from all pages on bitcoin.org.

Bitcoin developers such as David Harding said that Bitcoin.org should "let Bitpay explain its position before removing it from the list." Other developers agreed with Harding's point of view, but some preferred Theymos's solution.

BTC1 developer Jeff Garzik later explained:

It is reasonable and practical to follow the blockchain with the highest computing power (and therefore the most secure).

Theymos disagrees.

Bitcoin is not and must not be controlled by miners.

It looks like the second half of Segwit2x is not off to a good start. Bitcoiners are already talking about the birth of a third bitcoin, “B2X.” Meanwhile, bitcoin cash supporters are calling on Segwit2x supporters to join them, as most agree that the compromise is a long shot. In the coming months, the dispute will continue in the bitcoin world, and it seems likely that another blockchain split will occur.