Author: James Hilliard 2017-06-08 00:01:19
Published on: 2017-06-08T00:01:19+00:00
The conversation revolves around the potential risks and benefits of BIP148, a consensus change aimed at speeding up the activation of SegWit. The discussion covers various issues such as wipeout risk, hashpower, replay protection, transaction fees, and timing of activation. Concerns are raised about the viability of BIP148 without replay protection and the possibility of chain abandonment. The need for strong economic support and profitability for miners is also highlighted. Segwit2x is discussed as an alternative approach, but it also faces challenges in terms of consensus and bundling. Possible solutions such as unbundling SW and HF parts and using different signaling bits are suggested. Despite differing opinions, all parties agree on the importance of finding a solution that avoids a prolonged chain split and ensures the safety and stability of Bitcoin.Bitcoin developers propose a new measure called 'Split Protection' to prevent a potential split in the blockchain network. The proposal aims to provide a safety mechanism for miners to activate the existing segwit deployment with hashpower before August 1st and reduce the risk of an extended chain split. The BIP8-style soft fork requires all blocks to set the nVersion header top three bits to '001' together with bit field (1> existing segwit deployment), which will be rejected if not signaled as required. The BIP can be deployed by version bits with a 65% activation threshold.The Split Protection soft fork proposal is designed to ensure that there is no chain split during the upcoming BIP148 activation. It is compatible with the existing "segwit" bit 1 deployment scheduled between midnight November 15th, 2016, and midnight November 15th, 2017. Miners will need to upgrade their nodes to support split protection; otherwise, they may build on top of an invalid block. While this bip is active, users should either upgrade to split protection or wait for additional confirmations when accepting payments.Historically, IsSuperMajority() has been used to activate soft forks such as BIP66, which has a mandatory signaling requirement for miners once activated, ensuring that miners are aware of new rules being enforced. This technique can be leveraged to lower the signaling threshold of a soft fork while it is in the process of being deployed in a backward-compatible way. A BIP8 style timeout is used to ensure compatibility with BIP148 and that BIP148 compatible mandatory signaling activates regardless of miner signaling levels. By orphaning non-signaling blocks during the BIP9 bit 1 "segwit" deployment, this BIP can cause the existing "segwit" deployment to activate without needing to release a new deployment.As we approach BIP148 activation, it may be desirable for a majority of miners to have a method that ensures no chain split. The proposal includes various references, including mailing list discussions, P2SH flag day activation, and several BIPs related to Segregated Witness (Consensus layer) and Transaction Signature Verification. The document is dual-licensed as BSD 3-clause and Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
Updated on: 2023-06-12T01:51:40.159098+00:00