Pact to Speed Up Bitcoin Drives Digital Currency to Record High

Pact to Speed Up Bitcoin Drives Digital Currency to Record High
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Bitcoin’s seemingly unstoppable rally has just been given new impetus. According to Bloomberg, the cryptocurrency extended its surge by 10 percent to a record-high $2,690, bringing gains this year to 182 percent, after an agreement to upgrade the speed of processing transactions.

Before the pact, which was revealed on Tuesday, the digital currency faced a swelling backlog of transactions due to a cap on the amount of data the bitcoin blockchain can process. Disagreements over the right solution had fueled fears the digital asset would be split into two.

This week, Barry Silbert, founder of Digital Currency Group, posted a pact signed by more than 50 companies on increasing the block size and activating Segregated Witness, a new way of verifying transactions.

While the signatories represent 83 percent of bitcoin hashing power, many similar agreements have fallen through in the past, including one that was supposed to be activated in July this year. SegWit, which was released last year, has also drawn fire from some corners of the bitcoin community.