Author: Matt Corallo 2021-02-28 02:38:54
Published on: 2021-02-28T02:38:54+00:00
The safety of a soft fork depends on having a large number of upgraded nodes across the network enforcing the new rules, rather than simply signaling. To address the issue of the LOT=true/false dichotomy, a proposal called decreasing threshold activation has been suggested, which operates similarly to BIP8. This method requires a clear majority of signaling hashrate for activation to happen, making it relatively safe.A new activation method has also been proposed that removes the need for a MUST_SIGNAL period and automatic chain splits. Instead, this approach involves a decreasing threshold approach, where the required signaling threshold gradually decreases over time until it reaches 70-80% of the network hashrate. Once this threshold is reached, activation occurs. This approach allows for a cleaner and quicker activation process when it is relatively safe to do so, while still giving everyone time to prepare for potentially disruptive events when signaling hashrate is not high enough.The proposed method would simplify the activation mechanism and eliminate the need to work with different client releases and issues associated with deployed nodes with different consensus parameters. It would also remove the motivation to create UASF clients that force activation and provide users and miners with time to safely fork themselves off from the chain followed by Core if they choose not to upgrade. The goal of the proposal is to make the activation mechanism more robust and predictable, with less chance for users to make mistakes.The proposed method has received some pushback, with some expressing uneasiness with the MUST_SIGNAL mechanism and the related automatic chain split on activation. However, the pseudocode for the proposed method has been included in the email thread, and the hope is that it will be adopted as the default mechanism, requiring little discussion on how to activate future soft forks.
Updated on: 2023-05-21T01:14:30.474799+00:00