Zimbabwe’s only bitcoin exchange, Golix.io, is readying up for Segwit2x, the second bitcoin fork on November 16, as global prices cross the $7,000 level. In Zimbabwe prices are now near $14,000.
The November 16 fork to create Segwit2x follows an earlier split that recently created Bitcoin Gold. There is widespread sentiment that current and immediate future forks will not disrupt Bitcoin in a big way but traders and exchanges are already factoring in and readying up for the splits.
The Golix exchange in Zimbabwe has today factored in Bitcoin Gold which happened last week but was only effected in Zimbabwe this week. Interest in Bitcoin trade has risen phenomenally in Zimbabwe as the country continues to experience foreign currency shortages.
“Last week the bitcoin network had a fork that is now known as Bitcoin Gold. If you’re a bitcoin holder, you will get free units of the new bitcoin fork that is equivalent to the amount of bitcoin you were holding,” Golix said in an email to traders on Thursday.
It further stated that traders already holding bitcoins on Golix at the time of the fork “then you do not need to take any action as we’ll credit your wallet for you” automatically. Zimbabwean traders have been using Bitcoin to make international payments such as vehicle purchases and other e-commerce transactions.
Although the Bitcoin Gold fork happened last week, Golix sought to “minimize downtime, disruptions and to allow us more time for testing the security and stability of the Bitcoin Gold chain” by delaying its implantation in Zimbabwe.
“We shall only list Bitcoin Gold and credit wallets of those who were holding bitcoin at the time of the fork after the Segwit2x fork has happened. We expect this to be in about 2 weeks.”
The exchange says it is now ready for the second fork, Segwit2x expected on November 16. After the Segwit2x fork, Golix will continue to “refer to the current bitcoin chain as bitcoin and the forked bitcoin chain as Bitcoin2X, regardless of which chain accumulates the most difficulty” in Zimbabwe.
As result of the two forks, for Bitcoin trade purposes in Zimbabwe, Golix says the current bitcoin chain will continue to use the currency symbol BTC while Bitcoin Gold will use the currency symbol BTG.
The Segwit2x chain will use the currency symbol B2X while after the Segwit2x fork, the exchange platform change the Bitcoin Cash currency symbol from BCC to BCH.