Ant Pool's support for BU has caused a sudden change in the expansion situation, and traders are increasingly worried that Bitcoin will split

As the impact of the SEC’s decision to reject a Bitcoin ETF fades from the market, Bitcoin traders are seeing the return of another familiar topic – the long-simmering Bitcoin scaling debate.

After two years of debate over the optimal block size for Bitcoin, the Bitcoin community has still not been able to reach a consensus on a solution.

Although miners and nodes can now vote in favor of the Segregated Witness (SegWit) solution supported by Bitcoin Core, the proposal has not yet received enough signaling support from miners, just as the number of bitcoin transactions is surging and the corporate community is actively calling for a solution.

However, the current situation has undergone a decisive change with a piece of news this morning - Bitmain, the operator of AntPool, the world's largest Bitcoin mining pool, announced that it will shift all computing power to support Bitcoin Unlimited (BU).

The news comes as analysts grow increasingly concerned that the bitcoin network could undergo a hard fork - a process that, if not handled properly, would split the digital currency in two.

Therefore, traders have expressed their concerns about this issue. For example, Vinny Lingham, CEO of Civic, who is known as the “Bitcoin Prediction God” for accurately predicting the direction of Bitcoin many times, said:

“For Bitcoin to reach another milestone, a hard fork cannot occur.”

Lingham also tweeted:

“The danger is approaching. If Bitcoin forks, then all bets are off and we can only say goodbye to the $3,000 Bitcoin in 2017.”

Two Bitcoins?

One of the most common fears among traders is that a situation could arise in which a single party could effectively execute a change to the Bitcoin network that would cause the network’s nodes and miners to be split into two versions of the blockchain’s history.

This situation is not without precedent. Last summer, the Ethereum blockchain experienced a contentious hard fork, which resulted in Ethereum splitting into the Ethereum fork chain and the Ethereum original chain, namely ETH and ETC.

Henry Brade, co-founder of physical Bitcoin provider Denarium, even went so far as to encourage traders to liquidate their Bitcoin holdings in such circumstances.

“If Bitcoin splits, I suggest liquidating and buying back later. This is a bigger failure of trust than Mt. Gox.”

Lingham then went on to say that he firmly believed that if a fork occurred, it would end badly.

Furthermore, while the performance of ETH and ETC after the fork can provide some insights, the long-term impact of a hard fork is ultimately difficult to predict.

Bitcoin price ranges

According to the Coindesk Bitcoin Price Index (BPI), in today's uncertain situation, the price of Bitcoin is still fluctuating within a reasonable range today, between $1,216.31 and $1,247.26.

As of press time, the price of Bitcoin is $1,239.83.

Bitcoin hedge fund operator Tim Enneking summed up the current situation by saying that parties in the Bitcoin technology and enterprise communities are “losing patience” with Bitcoin’s current scaling situation.

He believes the market is now in a wait-and-see mode, but as long as Bitcoin does not split, whichever technical solution wins could bring huge benefits.

“As long as Bitcoin does not split, whichever solution wins will be positive for Bitcoin prices.”

This relative calm is in stark contrast to the wild swings Bitcoin has experienced over the past few days, with the cryptocurrency hitting a new all-time high of $1,325 before the SEC announced its decision on a Bitcoin ETF.

When the news of the SEC's rejection of the Bitcoin ETF was announced, Bitcoin immediately plummeted by nearly 30% to about $1,022, but the digital currency quickly rebounded and returned to $1,200.