Author: Matt Corallo 2016-12-18 10:34:43
Published on: 2016-12-18T10:34:43+00:00
The Bitcoin community is discussing the issue of developer centralization to ensure that users can refuse upgrades easily. It is important to update software regularly for security reasons, but finding the right balance is difficult. One concern raised is that some nodes may not be applying patches, making them vulnerable to known exploits. Another issue is that older nodes may become obsolete and incompatible with new upgrades, leading to fragmentation in the network. However, there are limitations to forcing people to upgrade, as anti-features in free software can be removed easily. The developers are considering introducing planned obsolescence in each new version to encourage users to upgrade within a reasonable time frame. Additionally, it is suggested that stopping support for older versions may be a simpler solution than dealing with ancient versions. The discussion also touches upon the problem of alt-coins forked from old vulnerable versions of bitcoind.
Updated on: 2023-05-20T00:30:44.867502+00:00