The value of DEFAULT_CHECKPOINTS_ENABLED is true and changing it will allow nodes using the default settings to accept blocks that would be currently rejected during a potential reorg. Is this change considered a hard-fork, or only changes to clearly enforced consensus rules can qualify as such?
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2That's a bit of a stretch. Related: bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/75735/5406– Murch ♦Jul 4, 2022 at 20:49
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A hard fork is defined as a relaxation of the consensus rules. (In contrast a soft fork is defined as a restriction of the consensus rules.) Changing the consensus rules to ignore checkpoints by default (assuming the reference client Bitcoin Core defines the consensus rules) would be a relaxation of the consensus rules and hence theoretically a hard fork. However, in reality the checkpoints that have been defined in Bitcoin Core are many years deep and the probability of a re-org back to these checkpoints is infinitesimally small (zero to a huge number of decimal places). So practically it wouldn't have any impact.
Checkpoints and assumedvalid was discussed at this London BitDevs Socratic Seminar in November 2021 on AssumeUTXO.
answered Jul 4, 2022 at 15:40
