Published on: 2017-04-13T17:30:08+00:00
There is a discussion about the use of coinbase and its potential clash with other proposals. Some suggest using a small set of standard thresholds to encode different values, while others prefer the coinbase idea. The writer proposes making the threshold configurable and not fixed in the soft-fork. They also suggest using a BIP9 conformant schedule to map threshold levels onto one byte. In an email exchange, Thomas suggests encoding the threshold in the version bits, while Sancho proposes extending BIP9 with a coinbase signaling feature. Sancho shares his proposal on GitHub for Thomas to review, but embedding data in coinbase poses a challenge due to limited space.The writer supports SegWit activation through BIP148 but believes that if a soft fork is initially activated by miners before the date set in BIP148, it would be less risky. User Activated Soft Fork (UASF) has risks like two competing branches and non-empty blocks being orphaned. The argument for UASF is that users give value to Bitcoin, so they should have the power to decide which branch has more value. However, this only works if the forking branch is usable. If adverse miners render it unusable, new coins may never reach markets. Lack of hashrate information prior to the soft fork increases risk. A soft fork initiated with more than 33% of the hashing power would likely be viable, as the remaining hashing power cannot successfully allocate to mine blocks on the non-forking branch and orphan blocks on the forking branch. Currently, about 30% of the hashing power signals support for SegWit using BIP9, close to the 33% threshold.The proposal suggests that miners signal the threshold at which they are willing to activate a soft fork. This information is published in the coinbase transaction of the block. Miners activate the soft fork if their threshold has been reached over the last retargeting period. This proposal reduces the risks associated with UASF by providing hashrate threshold information prior to the soft fork. However, it is susceptible to fake signaling and miners withholding hashing power before the fork.
Updated on: 2023-08-01T20:23:20.704114+00:00