Aug 17, 2023

Soft-forks on Bitcoin

Soft-forks on Bitcoin

A traditional soft-fork activation plays out like this:

  1. someone makes a proposal
  2. if half-dozen respected Core developers like that, they implement it and talk about it
  3. everybody loves the idea
  4. they ship it in Bitcoin Core
  5. miners turn it onA traditional soft-fork activation plays out like this:

A traditional soft-fork failure plays out like this:

  1. someone makes a proposal
  2. if half-dozen respected Core developers do not care much about the idea, they don't do anything
  3. people fight on Twitter about the merits of the idea forever

A sidechain activation within naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzqwlsccluhy6xxsr6l9a9uhhxf75g85g8a709tprjcn4e42h053vaqyghwumn8ghj7enfv96x5ctx9e3k7mgqpfj8y6tkv43ksctfdc9qways plays out like this:

  1. someone writes the sidechain software
  2. if a bunch of people are interested in that, they start playing with it in test mode
  3. if it is really good people launch a proposal to miners
  4. miners vote yes or no