Author: Jared Lee Richardson 2017-06-08 00:20:23
Published on: 2017-06-08T00:20:23+00:00
The discussion revolves around the upcoming BIP148 activation, which can potentially lead to a chain split in Bitcoin. The primary factors involved in preventing a permanent chain split are economic support and hashpower, with miners likely to mine whichever chain is most profitable. Higher transaction fees on a minority chain could compensate miners for a lower price, which would likely be enough to get the BIP148 chain to a difficulty reduction.However, without replay protection, the UASF chain may face problems as it lacks reliable methods of economic conversion. Exchanges will likely do the splitting automatically for users as well. The ETH/ETC split example is cited, which had no wipeout risk for either side, unlike the BIP148 side.The discussion also touches upon the issues with SegWit2x, which requires users to reach consensus, as opposed to BIP148, which is a consensus change that can be rectified if it gets more work. Segwit2x has more issues since the HF part requires users to reach consensus. Moreover, the timeline conflict between BIP91 and segwit2x makes it difficult for BIP91 to activate unless started ahead of the existing segwit2x schedule. There is a concern about the wipeout risk when 45% of the miners support one chain and 55% support the other chain. Lastly, the discussion highlights the importance of replay protection, which ETC added after the fork on an as-needed basis. On the other hand, BIP148 lacks replay protection, which may turn it into a hardfork if it is not the majority chain.A proposal has been made for a splitprotection soft fork, essentially BIP91 using BIP8 instead of BIP9 with a lower activation threshold and immediate mandatory signalling lock-in. This would allow miners to activate mandatory SegWit signalling ahead of the August 1st BIP148 activation date, preventing a potential chain split.The document specifies a coordination mechanism for a simple majority of miners to prevent a chain split ahead of BIP148 activation. The biggest risk of BIP148 is an extended chain split, this BIP provides a way for a simple majority of miners to eliminate that risk and coordinate activation of the existing segwit deployment with less than 95% hashpower before BIP148 activation. The context also includes information about licenses, mailing lists, and references related to Bitcoin development.
Updated on: 2023-06-12T01:52:51.805881+00:00