SegWit2X comes back as Scam2X

Hard Forks are not new for Bitcoin, but this particular SegWit2X fork is very interesting for many reasons and it took some time and research. I’ll get down by listing what all there is to know about the Segwit2x fork planned at block 501451 which will happen on 28th December 2017.

Segwit2x - Scam or not ?

Working to find out the truth behind Segwit2x

Is Segwit2x Team same which planned a Fork in November ?

Just 8 days before the Launch of Segwit2x, on 8 November Segwit2x Fork was cancelled by Bitgo CEO, Mike Belshe and he stated that a consensus could not be reached and thus the fork is called off. So why have another SegWit2x Fork just after a month ? This time the previous team is NOT related with the Fork.

A Post was made on 16 December on BitcoinTalk.org from a new user account with “Segwit2x” handle, where the SegWit2x was announced.

Let me dig deep into the Team of the this fork

SegWit2x Team

A screenshot of their website team tab taken on 19 December shows Sairam Jetty as Team Lead Developer and Donna Khyuz as Business Developer while Jaap Terlouw is Founder of Project.

Segwit2x Change of Member role and Members

As of now they have removed Sairam Jetty as Sairam Jetty was not even knowing that he was added as part of Segwit2x Team and Team Lead Developer role and added Robert Scabo as a Core Developer.

Segwit2x New Team (till now)

Lets dwell into the Current Team leading Segwit2x

Jaap Terlouw – Jaap Terlouw’s LinkedIn states that he is “Main developer and advisor at segwit2x” although there is not record of his “developer” status anywhere on internet, as per [LinkedIn[(https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaapterlouw/) and his Google+ Profile his location is stated as Netherlands while his TourBar dating profile lists his area as Kiev, Ukraine .

TourBar Dating Profile of Jaap Terlouw

Jaap also has an ongoing Change.org petition where he is promoting his Segwit2x fork and wants it to get listed on various exchanges

Donna Khyuz – Business Developer of Segwit2x has a dead LinkedIn Profile, the interesting thing is that the image used is same as found on @donna_khyuz Instagram profile with her profile stating ” Crypto Developer, ICO & Blockchain Expert” , interesting ? . Lets make use of Internet Archive to see the same Instagram profile. Do not be alarmed : “Model, Dancer, Actress, Business Woman” , that is a quick career change or a hired model?

Donna Khyuz Instagram states her as a Dancer

Robert Szabo – Robert Szabo LinkedIn Profile has mentioned segwit2x in his portfolio , might be the only valid connection working for this project here.

Flaws in Concept

First of all they have not mentioned it on their website or anywhere else that they will be pre-mining 2,000,000 coins (that makes 9.5% of total coins), way to go

SegWit2x with 2,000,000 coins premined

The initial post by Jaap on Bitcointalk.org stated in their roadmap that they will introduce ‘Ethereum Smart Contracts‘ in step 06, which you can still see on Internet Archive

Segwit2x lists “Ethereum Smart Contracts” on their road map

when asked about the above Jaap replied by saying “Hello. Thanks for your question.
No, we have revised our plans, this won’t be Ethereum based smart contract. You can check our Roadmap now” but later Jaap states that “1. It was a mistake of designer and it was fixed.” So you guys made a mistake with your Roadmap ? commitment to the cause eh.

Free B2X and BTCs from Satoshi Nakamoto, WHAT

Segwit2x website sates a message from CEO Jaap stating

I promise that all BTC holders will receive not only B2X in the ratio of 1 to 1, but also a proportional number of Satoshi > Nakamoto`s Bitcoins as a reward for their commitment to progress.

I have no idea how they will get hold of BTC held by Satoshi Nakamoto , the claims are weird and interesting at the same time

I think its enough fact finding to establish that this is a probable scam using the name of Segwit2x with no serious team behind the project.

The idea of the team headed by Jaap is to resume and refine the suspended Segwit2X project and create a “really anonymous and instant bitcoin.”

It is claimed that the purpose of the work is not the replacement of the original network, but the effective coexistence of two networks with different purposes.

General project information:

Estimated date of the fork: 28.12.2017
Total issue: 21 million coins
Protection against repeated transactions: Yes
Unit extraction speed: 2.5 minutes
Mining: X11
Block size: increased to 4 mb
Recalculation of difficulty: after each block
Unique address format: Yes
Also, according to the roadmap, these are planned improvements:

Offline codes
Lightning Network support, instant transactions
ZkSnark
Ethereum smart contracts
Anonymous transactions
Creators of SegWit2x has a Telegram channel (Russian speaking, mostly) additionally to the main website. It is also worth noting that official Instagram, Twitter, second Telegram channel and Reddit are almost empty.

Segwit2x supported Exchanges

If you are still interested in getting the free share of B2X, all exchanges which initially expressed willingness to support Segwit2x which was to happen in November will support B2X, currently the following exchanges support them

Bitfinex
BitOasis
Bitrefill (B2X will be forcibly sold for BTC)
Bitso
Bittrex
BTCC
CEX.io
Coinbase
Coinfloor
CoinNest
HitBTC
Huobi.pro
Luno
OKCoin
OKEx
SurBTC
Tidebit
Unocoin
ViaBTC
Xapo
More exchanges might start supporting after evaluating various factors including the replay attack protection