Author: Tier Nolan 2016-02-24 10:58:27
Published on: 2016-02-24T10:58:27+00:00
A proposal for a hard fork to implement a headers format change that is merge mine incompatible along with a timewarp to kill the previous chain has been suggested. The two-stage hard fork uses a block version flag to activate the fork when 3900 out of the previous 4032 blocks have this version flag set. In the initial Merge Mine Stage, the pre-fork chain must be mined with a generation transaction that creates no new coins and not contain any transactions. A consensus rule requires manipulation of ntime on the original chain to artificially increase difficulty and hold back the original chain so that all non-upgraded clients cannot catch up with current time. In the second stage, the header format is made incompatible with merge mining, activated approximately 50,000 blocks after the Merge Mine Stage at the start of the 2016 block difficulty boundary. The proposal aims to fix serious issues with pooled mining such as block withhold attacks that can only be resolved by major changes to the headers format. The first stage is designed to kill off the previous chain by holding back ntime to artificially increase network difficulty on the original chain to the point where it would be extremely difficult to mine the 2016 blocks needed to trigger a difficulty adjustment. The proposal also ensures that any clients merge mining are locked in for the headers change stage so that the original chain is dead by the time the headers change takes place. The hardfork will permanently disable all nodes, both full and light, which do not explicitly add support for it, but their security will not be compromised due to the implementation. To migrate, all nodes must choose to upgrade, and miners must express supermajority support. There is a high risk of there being two viable chains if a way to permanently disable the original chain is not implemented.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T04:06:46.014403+00:00