Bitcoin peer-to-peer lending platform Wayniloans has withdrawn its support for the SegWit2x bitcoin scaling proposal and the New York Agreement (NYA).
The company, which was the first peer-to-peer bitcoin lending platform in Latin America, made the announcement in an email distributed to the Bitcoin-segwit2x mailing list. Wayniloans co-founder Juan Salviolo wrote that, when they signed the NYA, they did not realize how contentious the scaling proposal would be. Specifically, they cited concerns that Core developers universally oppose it and that it is unpopular in Latin America.
On Wayniloans part or our business is achieved thanks to Bitcoin, and on May we agreed to a sentence to reach consensus for the good of the ecosystem….At the time we didn’t know that existing developers wouldn’t support it, or that most Latin American Bitcoin users, our customers, would view it as an contentious proposal.
Additionally, Wayniloans criticized NYA proponents for not implementing mandatory, opt-out replay protection, which would prevent attackers from broadcasting transactions on both blockchains and stealing coins from unwitting victims.
Also, without mandatory replay protection (not opt-in) on SegWit2x, we wouldn’t be able to operate the crypto part of our business without risk of missing funds or legal actions.
SegWit2x developer Jeff Garzik has proposed opt-in replay protection, but this would require users to protect themselves manually, which critics argue is too difficult for casual users who are not technically-proficient.
Wayniloans joins several other companies in withdrawing support for SegWit2x and the NYA. Banking and payment processor Bitwala announced last month it will only follow the SegWit2x blockchain if it receives support from Bitcoin Core, which does not appear likely. Additionally, web content platform Yours decided to launch on the bitcoin cash blockchain, and F2Pool–claiming they only agreed to support the NYA through July–say they stop signaling for SegWit2x the next time they update their pool servers.