Author: Natanael 2017-04-01 15:34:24
Published on: 2017-04-01T15:34:24+00:00
In an email exchange between Bitcoin developers Jorge Timón and Natanael, the issue of whether SegWit would constitute a hard or soft fork was discussed. Timón proposed that SegWit would replace the current 1 MB block-size limit with a weight limit of 4 MB which would mean that it constituted a hard fork. However, Natanael clarified that the 1 MB limit remains although it only covers the contents of the transaction scripts. With SegWit, there are two size limits. The weight calculation makes it impossible to create a block perceived as larger than 1 MB by old nodes without violating the weight limit. After activation, nodes supporting SegWit do not need to validate the 1 MB size limit anymore as long as they validate the weight limit. The current maximum is 4 MB, with 1 MB of non-witness blockchain data being weighted to 4x= 4 MB. This means that the two limits have been replaced with one limit and a ratio. A hard fork increasing the size could change the ratio too. However, non-SegWit nodes will still exist for some time. Links to the relevant BIPs were provided in the conversation.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T23:12:22.861495+00:00