Published on: 2017-04-07T10:14:07+00:00
In a recent email on the bitcoin-dev mailing list, Johnson Lau has proposed a redefinition of the terminology surrounding hard and soft forks. Instead of focusing on changes to block validity, Lau suggests defining these terms based on software upgrade necessity and difficulty. Under this new system, soft forks would refer to consensus rule changes that non-upgraded software can still use, while hard forks would require upgraded software for proper functionality. Lau introduces the concept of "hardfork-ness," which represents a continuum between the two types of forks.According to Lau, this notion of hardfork-ness can be applied to various components of the Bitcoin network, including mining nodes, non-mining full nodes, fully validating wallets, and fake SPV wallets. The level of hardfork-ness can also be influenced by the costs associated with running a border node. For instance, certain consensus rule changes like BIP34, 65, 66, and CSV have minimal resource requirements, resulting in low hardfork-ness. On the other hand, proposals such as the extension block proposal pose high hardfork-ness for wallets because legacy wallets may experience sudden invalidation of transactions and need to resign them without any intention of double spending.Lau delves into other interesting scenarios, such as soft-hardforks, which entail miners mining empty blocks with zero rewards and placing the transaction merkle tree in the legacy coinbase. Although technically classified as softforks in terms of block validity, they function more like hardforks in practice. Additionally, Lau highlights the distinction between technically softforks, such as on-chain KYC, blacklist implementation, and account freezing, and their significant disruptive impact on user experience, making them akin to hardforks.Moreover, Lau emphasizes that both the Lightning Network and side chains do not necessitate consensus rule changes and have the potential to introduce new features without any hardfork-ness. These innovations offer opportunities for enhanced functionality within the Bitcoin ecosystem.Overall, Lau's proposal aims to redefine the terminology surrounding hard and soft forks based on software upgrade necessity and difficulty, introducing the concept of hardfork-ness as a continuum between the two. This approach allows for a more nuanced understanding of the impact and implications of various consensus rule changes within the Bitcoin network.
Updated on: 2023-08-01T20:16:11.877834+00:00