Can anybody explain to me how close we are to "inevitable" hard fork? I see core nodes still dominate at over 82% with BU below 12% after all this contention and arguing. Are we exaggerating the problem or am I missing something?
That's only the number of nodes.
What really matters is how much hashpower does bitcoin unlimited have and bitcoin core have, and right now that number is extremely close to each other. I believe it is already something like 40% of the network hashpower is directed to bitcoin untlimited.
Anyways, Bitfinex already is listing BTC and BTU as two different coins, and currently BTU is trading at around $400 whilst BTC is at around $700.
It's definitely a great time for the speculators and the traders, they'll enjoy this event.