Author: David Vorick 2017-03-12 17:20:15
Published on: 2017-03-12T17:20:15+00:00
The adoption of Segregated Witness (SegWit) took almost six months, and it is expected that the adoption for User Activated Soft Fork (UASF) SegWit will take at least that much time. However, it should be noted that a UASF will split and become the minority chain if the majority of transaction accepting nodes on the network do not agree to strictly follow the UASF and reject blocks that do not signal for SegWit. Before setting a flag day, written cooperation agreements from the largest economic players in Bitcoin are needed. Close to 100% cooperation is desired because these entities are powerful enough to threaten the success of a UASF, particularly as they hold users' bitcoins. Once a convincing majority is onboard, a UASF patch can be released a year after its release to activate SegWit. If the UASF triggers with majority economy support and miners resist, a minority block reward chain may be the longest for a while; however, when the majority block reward chain catches up, the minority reward chain will be obliterated, eliminating all block rewards, transaction history, and making money vanish. This makes it dangerous to oppose the UASF as there is significant momentum behind it. The failure of the UASF means a permanent coin split, so caution must be exercised exceeding that of a normal soft fork.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T22:10:16.381273+00:00