If Core had compromised then we perhaps could have continued with the illusion of decentralization for a while longer.

I don't know what happens now. Perhaps fireworks. MPeX promised to wreck havoc if ever miners attempt to create 20 MB blocks. I don't know if he still thinks he can keep that threat.

Maybe they will really follow through with a new PoW hash and MPeX (aka Mircea Popescu) spending some of his $billions (he had at least 750,000 BTC years ago and accumulating $100k per day, and sold 250,000 BTC in 2016 for "cash" which perhaps is that kept the price down) to mine all the coins on the new PoW hash and bankrupt the Chinese mining cartel. The Chinaman said 200 million yuan required which is only $29 million. Thats small money for MPeX. He earned more than that on the DAO hack.

I expect something crazy may happen soon. Stay tuned.

The Chinamen + BU don't seem too smart. I think they are going to get their ass kicked perhaps. We'll see.

So if MPeX can bankrupt the mining cartel, then what happens is a new form of immutability with MPeX as the BDFL. That is MPeX promises to always protect small blocks. And Core promises to change the PoW hash if any mining cartel tries to violate this.

Did I mention that Bitcoin is centralized?

I think MPeX is behind this standoff perhaps. Or maybe other banksters. Perhaps the miners are going to own ASIC doorstops soon.

This is a high stakes power struggle and we are just onlookers. The people with big money will decide. We will follow.

Likely the BTC price will go before the dusts settles and it can rise again after we have a victor in the coming hashrate war. As I always said, Satoshi's PoW is a winner-take-all power vacuum. They must fight and there can only be one winner. Compromise is not an option where there exists a power vacuum, because power enabling vested interests are mutually conflicting.