Author: Jonathan Toomim 2015-12-30 23:49:35
Published on: 2015-12-30T23:49:35+00:00
The email thread on Bitcoin-dev discusses the concept of making non-upgraded nodes enter "zombie mode" after a hard fork. One suggested method involves performing a 51% attack against the minority fork, which is how all soft forks are performed. The generalized softfork technique would merge-mine another block structure to provide functionality to upgraded nodes while eliminating any usefulness to non-upgraded nodes. Soft forks are considered safe because miners can be trusted to censor blocks and transactions that do not conform to new consensus rules. However, some find these 51% attacks distasteful and unnecessary. Another proposed method involves entering "zombie mode" after a chain is seen to be six or more blocks ahead of the chain tip, but this method is voluntary and relies on nodes upgrading before a fork occurs.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T02:39:10.074356+00:00