Author: Andy Parkins 2011-08-11 05:47:34
Published on: 2011-08-11T05:47:34+00:00
In an email conversation on August 11, 2011, Jeff Garzik suggested a version number field with the complexity of if( blockNumber > 500000 ) new_process(); else old_process(); to resolve compatibility objections and give nodes time to upgrade. However, the community seems hard-wired against breaking changes because it implies messing with the Blessed Satoshi Design that has received extensive study, and 100% communal agreement. If the community changes its mind, and there are strong calls to make a breaking change, it can be done as Bitcoin is open source and democratic. The protocol has had minor tweaks historically speaking, such as adding new protocol commands. Removing commands tends to be high cost for low benefit. Verack is redundant, adds nothing and is an annoyance. At the end of the day, developers are here to adequately reflect the needs of our userbase. The majority of suggestions made by developers were backward compatible and they want to transition in an orderly fashion. The burden is on developers to convince the bitcoin users and miners that it's a good idea if they want to deploy a breaking change. If the bitcoin dev team is not accurately reflecting the desire of its users, then that should be corrected, and they want to hear feedback.
Updated on: 2023-05-26T20:07:46.155687+00:00