With the bitcoin development community embracing a software upgrade known as SegWit2x that aims to increase the networks transaction capacity, a split of the cryptocurrency appears to be avoided. As proponents of the change celebrate, heres what some have to say about what may be next.

Were going to see greater utility of the network. Now people can use bitcoin as a way to transit value more easily, more quickly, more cheaply. And that tends to attract in new users to the network."

Going forward, there will probably be open-blockchains like bitcoin, which tends to move more slowly or conservatively, but there will be other blockchains like ethereum that may move more quickly and introduce a larger surface area for developers to build on top of. I think both of those things complement each other, not compete with each other."

Its a great step for bitcoin. There were a lot of question marks, obviously this has been in contention for quite some time now, but reaching consensus for how to scale bitcoin further is a huge step, clearly. SegWit activating and allowing things like Lightning Network is going to be huge for allowing more activity with existing user base, and down the line once we start to expand the blocksize, well be able to expand the number of users on the network."

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The fact BIP91 came through is a good signal that everyone wants to be growing this network further. And theres a lot of ways that its accomplished, but the fact there is way forward is encouraging. Youll never know what happens between now and a few months down the line, in the cryptocurrency space especially, but Im encouraged everything we saw in the past few weeks. A lot of question marks are starting to get answers."

The BIP91 lock-in would be extremely significant for bitcoin and one of the first steps towards scaling the network. Work and discussion around scaling bitcoin has been ongoing for years - with the first dedicated conference around the topic beginning in 2015."

After BIP91 locks in, approximately two weeks later SegWit should go live. Beyond that, there is still risk that bitcoin could split into different chains supporting different maximum block sizes (like a SegWit 1MB chain and a SegWit 2MB chain)."

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Bitcoin doesnt have a Turing-complete language like ethereum, but there are some new interesting things that will enable to do be done once SegWit is implemented."

She gave a few examples:

With assistance by Lulu Yilun Chen

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What's Next for Bitcoin After Digital Currency Split Is Averted - Bloomberg