Author: Jeff Garzik 2014-10-03 23:12:11
Published on: 2014-10-03T23:12:11+00:00
In a discussion about the deployment of Bitcoin, Mike Hearn explains that Bitcoin is a consensus system and works best when everyone follows exactly the same rules at the same time. He mentions that less disruptive upgrades are built in for those who choose to stay on an older codebase. A soft fork can downgrade nodes like SPV security without them realizing while a hard fork has multiple desirable properties and assures a clean failure. The main justification for a soft fork is backwards compatibility, but running behind the consensus in Bitcoin is not desirable. In other software, people can skip an upgrade and things still work just like before but it's not the case with Bitcoin. Mechanisms are in place to warn people and they can be scheduled with plenty of time in advance.
Updated on: 2023-06-09T02:49:16.528141+00:00