Author: Billy Tetrud 2022-03-12 17:52:59
Published on: 2022-03-12T17:52:59+00:00
The author expresses concerns about a potential "dumb majority soft fork" in the future of Bitcoin, where a crisis could lead to panic and people pushing for a change in the rules. This could be particularly dangerous if an economic majority does not understand the risks involved. The author suggests that in such a scenario, those in the economic minority might need a plan to hard fork away from the majority fork, which would require some mining power. However, it is unclear how much mining power would be needed or how small of a minority chain could be worth saving. The author notes that there is a ~50% chance that something like this could happen in the next 100 years, and emphasizes the need for a well-discussed and well-vetted plan for what to do in such a scenario. One possible solution suggested is tweaking the difficulty recalculation and releasing a soft fork-aware Bitcoin version that rejects the new rules or a specific existing post-soft-fork block.In a discussion on bitcoin-dev, some users suggest opting out of an activation proposal by simply not using it or running an older version of Bitcoin Core. Soft-forking against activation is also mentioned as a mechanism that already exists. However, the author points out that if they find themselves in the economic minority, their only options would be to either accept the new rules or sell their Bitcoin. The author concludes by stressing the importance of considering opt-in functionality for future soft-forks.
Updated on: 2023-06-15T18:01:52.508911+00:00