In the previous version of this set of articles, we delved deep into the reasons required for a blocksize increase. After considerable thought, we found that the incentives are better based on the transaction value so that it gives enough motivation for miners to confirm them. Lack of, or constant, incentives might not be the best motivator to include old transactions that have been missed by miners in the past.
The Bitcoin community has reached a grand compromise on the scalability debate and a hard fork is happening. Read below for the details of how the hard fork is going to be executed followed by the impending dynamics.
The final decision:
The decision was made in a series of non-public meetings where independent journalists and observers were invited to observe. Key figures from Bitcoin Core, Bitcoin Unlimited, almost all miners, as well as almost all of the significant bitcoin businesses managed to reach an agreement after a week long discussion. Gregory Maxwell, Peter Todd, and others from Bitcoin Core, together with Andrew Stones, Peter Tschipper, Andrea Suisani and others from Bitcoin Unlimited, as well as J Wang Chun, ihan Wu, Bobby Lee, Alex Petrov, plus Brian Armstrong, Nicolas Cary, Mike Belshe have reached the following understanding:
Bitcoin developers, from both Core and Unlimited, will merge within two weeks to provide a max blocksize increase to 4MB which will then further increase by 25% yearly until 32MB blocksize is reached. This will be coupled with modified segway to remove the fee discount for signature data settling the incentive debate once and for all. On July the 4th 2017, a flag-day upgrade will take place where all nodes are expected to have upgraded by that point. The document states:
“After two years of lengthy debate where all minute details have been discussed at great length, we believe that a slightly more than two months lead time is more than sufficient for the network nodes to upgrade.”
What happens to the Bitcoin Community?
The decision resolved some differences in the Bitcoin community. Gavin Andresen and Peter Todd were spotted having friendly discussions as their animosity comes to an end. Mike Hearn and Gregory Maxwell, Roger Ver and Samson Mow were also seen catching up and thus putting an end to all the circulating rumors of hostility. It is rumored that Michael Marquardt aka Theymos, the top moderator of r/bitcoin, would resign soon. All those who have been banned from r/bitcoin on political grounds are to be unbanned as per the document. The policy of censorship will end effective immediately in a widely democratic Bitcoin community.
Effects on Bitcoin:
Bitcoin’s prices have stabilized over the announcement, putting an end to the bearish cloud that hampered Bitcoin past month. This can be viewed as a victory for both ends as the forking now seems an elected one with sufficient guard rails placed so that both the parties can have what they wanted in a fair trade off. With the fork coming up, Bitcoin prices are expected to dip a little, up to 8%, before getting into a bullish trend once again.
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