HOME PAGE TECH BLOCKCHAIN BITCOIN CLASSIC PROPOSAL: A DOUBLING OF TRANSACTIONS PER BLOCK?
A new version of Bitcoin Classic, an offshoot of Bitcoin Core, could double the number of transactions per block.
Bitcoin users currently rely on different versions of Bitcoin Core, the successor to the protocol originally written by Satoshi Nakamoto. The current blocksize debate, however, opened the door to other implementations, as the rise and fall of Bitcoin XT made clear some time ago.
Discussions about this proposal and generally about the yes or no question behind increasing the block size ultimately triggered a schism in the Reddit community around Bitcoin. Further sharp debates took place on Twitter and the slack channels of Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Classic.
What will happen to the crypto trader?
Now Bitcoin Classic is released. Will the crypto trader be accepted now? A preliminary data collection allows the conclusion that the number of nodes working with Bitcoin Classic will increase in the future like this: . According to the page Coin.Dance there are currently a bit more than 500 nodes with Bitcoin Classic – in comparison there are 4100 Bitcoin core nodes.
The new version of Bitcoin Classic, ultimately a restructuring of the current Bitcoin core that would accept larger blocks, could be a new phase in the debate about scaling the transaction capacity of the blockchain.
For over a year now, members of the Bitcoin community have been arguing extensively and often bitterly about the block size. The latest proposal, which includes Bitcoin Classic, plans to increase the block size from 1MB to 2MB. If the new protocol were activated, it would lead to a split in the blockchain, with both branches containing their own different transaction histories from the time of the split.
Since its release last month, Bitcoin Classic has attracted the attention of both supporters and critics alike. The former see it as the next phase of software development behind Bitcoin, the latter a threat to the blockchain.
The proposal to split the existing history of Bitcoin transactions into two branches as described above (one with 2MB block size, one with 1MB block size) is supported by startups working in the Bitcoin scene and some Bitcoin miners.
However, you have to keep in mind that an activation of the Bitcoin Classic software requires 751 of 1,000 miners supporting 2MB blocks. Only then will a 28-day transition period begin during which node operators and miners will have to replace their software with one compatible with Bitcoin Classic.
At a conference hosted by Coinbase – Coinbase itself is a strong supporter of Bitcoin Classic – Bitcoin Core Maintainer Gavin Andersen said he suspected that miners who did not immediately support Bitcoin Classic would follow suit if there was sufficient support:
“As soon as 75% of the miners are convinced, the rest will follow very quickly. This is exactly what happened with similar protocol updates”.
An adoption of Bitcoin Classic depends on the majority of node operators and miners, they must take the step of splitting off from the existing network. This has never been the case before; so far, new versions of Softfork (protocol versions that are fully downward compatible) have been tested by volunteers.
The Bitcoin Classic team – which includes people like Andersen and Bloq CEO Jeff Garzik – said they expect a new version to be released within the next few weeks. This new version would be based on Bitcoin Core 0.12. The development team will get some new faces (Pedro Pinheiro, Tom Zander and Jon Rumion), while others will only be external (Jonathan Toomim, Marshall Long and Olivier Janssens).
The debates continue
Advocates of increasing the block size limit say that this will be necessary in the near future; it needs this new space to allow more transactions and as a means against too high transaction fees. Friends of Bitcoin Classic stress that it is competition between different implementations of the Bitcoin protocol that drives development and allows Bitcoin users to participate in this process through freedom of choice.
Critics say that these changes should be pushed through too quickly and therefore too risky; the question is asked how a broad adoption of a hard fork should be successfully coordinated at all. It would then be necessary for all nodes to download new software, otherwise they would be separated from the network by incompatibility. Also, the governance system of Bitcoin Classic,