Author: Gregory Maxwell 2013-03-13 19:30:24
Published on: 2013-03-13T19:30:24+00:00
Mark Friedenbach and the writer of the email exchange are discussing the definition of a hard-fork in relation to the bitcoin protocol. The writer argues that a hard-fork is a rule difference that can cause irreconcilable failure in consensus, rather than a political change or a fuzzy understanding. They suggest that arguments over definitions are silly and propose naming the consensus failure event something else if necessary.Mark Friedenbach's proposal for a hard-fork only on mining nodes faces coordination problems as there may be difficulty contacting a majority of the hashpower to turn off their special validation code. This issue becomes more pressing as solo miners with tens of TH/s become increasingly common. It is suggested that a deadline should be set instead, where everyone must upgrade to 0.7.4 or >0.8.1 before a certain time and then all switch at once. By doing so, the viability of a general mechanism not dependent on poor miner decentralization can be demonstrated.
Updated on: 2023-05-19T16:40:08.872429+00:00