BTC NEWS: Bitmain Announced The Release Date Of An Alternative Solution For Bitcoin Scaling
The developer of the mining equipment and Bitmain software announced the successful testing of the SegWit2x bitcoin scaling solution and the launch of the alpha version of the protocol on June 16.
The SegWit2x solution is released in response to the UASF protocol (BIP148), which, according to Bitmain, is capable of increasing the risk of a 51% attack on the bitcoin network, since it will cause some nodes that have been upgraded to BIP148 to not accept blocks that do not contain Support SegWit.
"If the UASF blocking system is activated and if this chain receives the most hashed, then the nodes of the initial blockbuster will be reorganized and begin to follow the new UASF blockbuster. In this case, a significant number of records about financial transactions will disappear. There is a risk that the nodes updated to UASF will conflict with the nodes of the primary chain. "
Bitmain warns that if the UASF solution does not receive sufficient support from the miners, then the new blockbuster may face stagnation of the network.
"BIP148 represents a significant risk to the bitcoin ecosystem, so we are preparing an action plan to protect economic activity in the battle of bitcoin from this threat."
May 24, 2017 in New York, heads of crypto-currency companies and miners signed a proposal put forward by the head of the investment company Digital Currency Group Barry Zilbert. According to the document signed by 56 companies with a total of 83% of the network hash, the barrier for SegWit activation should be reduced from 95% to 80%. In addition, within six months, it is necessary to activate the "hard fork", which will increase the block size limit to 2Mb. The advantage of this solution (User Activated Hard Fork or UAHF) is that even after the activation of the protocol, the blocks that would become inadmissible under UASF will continue to be accepted by the nodes.
"The UAHF offer is a peaceful and voluntary choice for members of the bitcoin community who have different opinions and visions of the situation, and it does not aim to suppress another blockage, even if the UAHF chain will have a higher speed of hashing."
In a statement, Bitmain is also accused of representatives of the Bitcoin Core development team that they refused to attend the meeting in New York and deliberately tried to disrupt the signing of the agreement.
"This agreement is the result of the hard work of those who sincerely believe in bitcoins, entrepreneurs and investors who are very financially interested in expanding the network of bitcoins."
Followers of the decision SegWit2x prepared a plan to counteract the UASF. They plan to implement a "hard fork" for 12 hours and 20 minutes later than UASF will be activated. The main rule for the fork block is the principle of "must be big". This means that the size of the fork block (the first block ready to accept the changes in the rules of consensus) should be greater than 1 MB. The block size is up to 8MB, but the miners will set a limit of 2 MB. The size of the block will not be strictly limited by the rules of consensus. The miners who generate large blocks will be penalized by economic measures, but the participants in the New York agreement do not plan to limit the size of the block.
According to preliminary plans, the supporters of UAHF are hoping to increase the block size limit at the following rates: in August 2017 - up to 2 MB, in September 2017 - to 4.194 MB, in April 2018 - to 5.93 MB, in August 2018 - to 8.39 MB, in April 2019 - up to 11.86 MB, in August 2019 - up to 16.78 MB.
The Bitmain statement was taken with hostility by the Bitcoin Core development team. One of the developers of the bitcoin kernel Luc Dashir wrote on Twitter that Bitmain plans to launch an attack on the network on August 1, 2017, and blame BIP148 for this.
