Future looks bleak for SegWit Gold

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Things do not bode well for SegWit Gold (SWG), which is looking to fork in less than 10 days.

The project, led by Jack Liao of Hong Kong mining firm Lightning ASIC, is seeking to change the proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm, which means that it will lose the network of computers that secure the network. Oh, the SWG developers are also granting themselves free coins as a “reward” for their work on the project.

The red flags, however, don’t stop there.

Decos blockchain specialist Gert-Jaap Glasbergen listed in a Medium post some of the many unanswered questions brought on by the SWG project. For starters, the developers have yet to publicize the proposed fork. There are no technical information about SWG—not on the project’s website, nor on its GitHub and Slack channel. The developers have also decided to mine 16,000 blocks, which is equivalent to 200,000 SWG as block reward, even before releasing the chain to the public.

“According to code activity and comments on Github, the developers forked the chain (or will fork the chain) from a particular block height they call a ‘snapshot.’ They will release the chain to the public at a later date, instead of immediately. This ‘downtime’ will give them the capacity to mine on it privately, which is a giant red flag,” Glasbergen said, adding that the SWG team hasn’t implemented replay protection to prevent users from losing coins before or after the fork.

To top it off, there are sites that ask for the user’s private key to “guarantee” that they can claim their BTC balance—a pure and simple scamming tactic.

In response, the SWG team told news.bitcoin.com that replay protection “is a relatively simpler code change” compared to the PoW change.

“We have consistently stated that [SWG] must have replay protection before launch,” the team said, even though they have yet to add the code because “there has only been one volunteer developer working on this project until now.”

The SWG team’s response to the concerns hasn’t quelled investors’ misgivings, and the lack of support is quite telling. So far, no wallets or exchanges have announced their support for the upcoming hard fork, which isn’t a surprise. It’s clear that SWG has no place in the cryptocurrency space, and is only creating unnecessary drama. Bitcoin Cash is the only adult fork existing and the coin most aligned with the original system laid out in the Bitcoin whitepaper.