Author: Sergio Demian Lerner 2017-03-31 22:13:35
Published on: 2017-03-31T22:13:35+00:00
Sergio Demian Lerner has proposed a patch called Segwit2Mb to resolve the conflict between different political positions regarding segwit and an increase of the on-chain blockchain space through a standard block size increase. The primary goal is to re-unite the Bitcoin community and avoid a cryptocurrency split. The tentative lock-in and hard-fork dates are April 29th, 2017, August 29th, 2017, and December 14th, 2017, respectively.Matt Corallo responded by suggesting that Sergio had ignored the last two years of Bitcoin hardfork research and understanding, recycling instead BIP 102 from 2015. He also suggested that Sergio should read some of the posts on this mailing list and make further edits based on what he learns. At a minimum, in terms of pure technical changes, Matt suggested considering utilizing the "hard fork signaling bit" in the nVersion of the block, limiting non-SegWit transactions in some way to fix the n**2 sighash and FindAndDelete runtime and memory usage issues or fix them by utilizing the new sighash type which many wallets and projects have already implemented for SegWit in the spending of non-SegWit outputs, replay protection in any HF, tweaking the witness discount and possibly discounting other parts of the input, and additional commitments at the top of the merkle root.Matt believes that Sergio's parameters pose very significant risk to the Bitcoin ecosystem broadly and that having a significant discontinuity in block size increase only serves to confuse and mislead users and businesses, forcing them to rapidly adapt to a Bitcoin which changed overnight both by hardforking, and by fees changing suddenly.In addition, Sergio has stated that although he has coded a first version of the SegWit2Mb patch, he would prefer to wait to publish the source code until more comments have been received from the community. He also suggested that the hard-fork activation date be delayed if there is a need for more time.The Bitcoin community is in need of a compromise solution to address the issue of halting innovation for years. The proposed solution, segwit2mb, requires all Bitcoin nodes to be updated to prevent them from being forked away in a chain with almost no hashing power before the hard-fork occurs.The proposed solution aims to see the Lightning Network in action this year, use the non-malleability features in segwit, and discuss other exciting soft-forks in the scaling roadmap such as Schnorr sigs, drivechains and MAST. Contributions to the segwit2mb project are welcomed and expected, but only if they stick to the principle that the patch should be as simple to audit as possible. Improvements unrelated to a 2 Mb increase or segwit should not be part of segwit2Mb, and this proposal should not prevent other consensus proposals from being simultaneously merged. Segwit2mb is considered a last resort solution if the community cannot reach consensus on anything better. This proposal is only a starting point, and community feedback is expected and welcomed. Developers are encouraged to give their opinion, suggest changes, audit it, and take a stand with Sergio Demian Lerner to unlock the current Bitcoin deadlock.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T23:13:20.151846+00:00