Internet Security Blog - Hackology
    Internet Security Blog - Hackology
    CryptocurrencyReview

    SegWit2X comes back as Scam2X

    Dr-Hack
    December 26, 2017
    44 comments
    7 min read

    UPDATE 5 – 22nd Jan 2018 : Segwit2x Wallet seems to work eventually, if the initial sync doesn’t work you may delete and restart the process. Only Extrates and YoBit have started initial support no other exchange will be considering it for now as there has been no submission by the Team – lacks criteria fulfillment

    UPDATE 4 – 1st Jan 2018 : Still no working wallet, no block explorer and people are still not able to sync their wallets. A total mess , I would be very careful while interacting with sites which offer “SegWit2x Wallets” etc

    UPDATE 3.1 :         Official Segwit2x B2X Wallet has been Released. I’ll give this a thorough scan before I consider to use this.

    UPDATE 3 – 29 December 2017 : Team of Segwit2x said that they will launch Wallets today. Mining on the Official pool also give reward “0” . So let see if at they fix their “fork”

    UPDATE 2 : Admins of Segwit2x have left their Official Telegram Channels – I do not think we will be seeing them anytime soon , they might be trying now to pull off their “Exit Strategy”

    UPDATE : So called Segwit2x mainnet has been launched but apparently no one can mine anything nor there is any Wallet so no one can claim their B2X Wallet Address, even if you could I wouldn’t Recommend That. Official Pool of Segwit2x is showing mining at lightening speed of some currency while the addresses are all BTC Wallets (Non Segwit2x) .I would suggest DO NOT Buy this coin as it being dumped (saw some buy orders on YOBIT)

    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 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
      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
      UPDATE -29 Dec : Went through Jaap Terlouw Facebook profile I think the actual owner behind the segwit2x might be someone else, as Jaap seems like a lonely follow with not interest of tech.

    • 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

      Update: Just found out that Donna Khyuz also runs a Flower Shop and her Facebook Profile has images of her in some dance performance till 8th December , a very talented lady indeed

      Donna Ketrin Khuyz Facebook Profile
    • Robert Szabo – Robert Szabo LinkedIn Profile has mentioned segwit2x in his portfolio , might be the only valid connection working for this project here.
    • Update – 29 December

    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 (that makes 9.5% of total coins), way to go, Wallet Addresses used in code are : 18wFZB62chDhYdapBnVEXX4y9hUvWs8yRu , mh7CayYx3J8ofEU5zSZPqJJV65d8ijkJpm , ms17iABVQf7RQB8iaxeXPBkFdQQjCv7CmV (I would appreciate someone to update me that who owns which wallet )

    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. NO EXCHANGE WILL BE SUPPORTING IT DUE TO LACK OF DEVELOPERS UNDERSTANDING OF THEIR OWN COIN

    • 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

    44 comments

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    You may also like

    Get Wise

    Subscribe to my newsletter to get latest InfoSec / Hacking News (1 Email/week)
    Utopia p2p Ecosystem