- Main issues
- Historical past of Bitcoin forks
Bitcoin Core contributor Luke Dashir is reportedly contemplating a Bitcoin exhausting fork within the close to future.
The controversial developer is a loud opponent of accelerating the dimensions of OP_RETURN, arguing that there is no such thing as a place for non-monetary knowledge on the main blockchain. Therefore, there is no such thing as a want for optimization.
He maintains the Bitcoin Knots consumer, which is an alternate implementation of Bitcoin nodes.
Initially, Knots got here up with filters that particularly block transactions with non-monetary knowledge.
Nonetheless, all nodes are required to retailer knowledge throughout the similar blocks, and the filters carried out by Knots can apply solely to unconfirmed transactions.
Dashir has now acknowledged that merely policing the memoool just isn’t adequate.
In response to the report, he has proposed organising a committee that may retroactively alter knowledge on the main blockchain. Nonetheless, this is able to require launching a Bitcoin exhausting fork.
Main issues
The exhausting fork would inevitably increase such main issues as censorship, on condition that it may doubtlessly result in all “unfavorable” knowledge being eliminated. Moreover, node operators may doubtlessly face legal legal responsibility in the event that they refuse to adjust to the committee’s requests.
The report claims that the messages had been verified, however Dashjr is denying the allegations.
Blockstream CEO Adam Again claims that the allegations are “far worse” than he may have imagined.
In response to BitMEX Analysis, this seems to be an “assault” on the cryptocurrency’s key censorship resistance traits.
Historical past of Bitcoin forks
In relation to blockchains, exhausting forks are used for implementing main protocol adjustments.
Since its launch, the Bitcoin community has seen a number of exhausting forks, together with Bitcoin XT, Bitcoin Traditional, Bitcoin Money (essentially the most profitable one by far), and Bitcoin Gold.