Questions tagged [soft-fork]
Should be used for questions regarding softforks of the bitcoin blockchain
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What would happen if we provide witness program different than 32 bytes for SegWit 1?
If the witness program (at the time of writing this question) is greater than 1, it is considered as anyone-can-spend output. Also, if the witness version is 1 and the witness program is 32 bytes, ...
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What Satoshi Nakomoto quotes are there in relation to forks and altcoins?
What Satoshi Nakomoto quotes are there in relation to:
forks of Bitcoin?
forks in general?
altcoin/similar projects?
Here I mean forks that form distinct new coins/ecosystems, not in relation to ...
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What would happen if the non-upgraded node to BIP68 receives block with the transaction where one of its nSequence is different than 0xffffffff?
What would happen if the node not upgraded to BIP68 and relative lock time meaning of nSequence get a block with the transaction where one of its nSequence is not set to 0xffffffff, but to value which ...
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How do we know whether a pull request will be a soft fork or a hard fork?
Aren't all pull requests either one or the other - a soft fork or a hard fork?
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What does it mean that BIP141 is "buried" in Bitcoin core?
I am reading the list of BIPs implemented in Bitcoin core (link) and it says that BIP141 is "buried since v0.19.0", what does that mean? Does this mean that what written in BIP141 is no ...
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Why does everyone say that soft forks restrict the existing ruleset?
I understand that a key element of a soft fork is that legacy nodes will accept transactions from updated nodes. This is essentially the whole point of a soft fork as opposed to a hard fork.
But ...
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What is the technological achievement that is needed in order to get effective SNARKs into Bitcoin?
AFAIU SNARKs may be introduced into the Bitcoin protocol as a soft fork (e.g. a new segwit version number), and this would enable many new use cases, such as verifying very advanced computations that ...
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Why isn't the taproot deployment buried in Bitcoin Core?
Bitcoin Inquisition recently had a PR about soft fork activation and as part that PR, it buries taproot and references a closed PR to Bitcoin Core to bury taproot. Will the taproot deployment be ...
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Does version of Bitcoin Core determine my consensus?
As far as (voting) on the network?
I run a full node, but do not mine.
I hear people say we have a choice when changes are made.
Is it the version of Core that determines that?
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Does Bitcoin need future consensus change upgrades or could a billion people use Bitcoin today?
Do Bitcoin Core and other base-layer implementations necessarily need further upgrades in order to become sufficiently fast and efficient to process the volume of transactions that you and others ...
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Why exactly would adding further divisibility to bitcoin require a hard fork?
There are quite a few threads already on this topic, but they all focus on the necessity or possibility for such a change. I understand that, even though it is difficult and would obviously require ...
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Can you attack the network in a UASF-way?
Let's say that an attacker wants to deploy a softfork, that isn't desired by the majority of the Bitcoin users. Can he enforce that softfork in a UASF-way, essentially flooding the network with nodes ...
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Do non-Segwit nodes reject Segwit transactions with invalid signature?
As far as I can tell, non-Segwit nodes receive anyone-can-spend transactions, and thus come with no signature to validate. If a miner included a Segwit transaction to a block with invalid signature, ...
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What is the history on how previous soft forks were tested prior to being considered for activation?
How were previous soft forks tested prior to being considered for activation? Were they added to the default testnet? Was a custom testnet setup with the soft fork functionality available on that ...
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Could OFAC create a soft fork?
If OFAC demanded that no US entity build on top of a block with a sanctioned TX included, would it cause a soft fork?
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What is the difference between 51% attack fork, hard fork and soft fork?
I am confused between the forking that can be created because of the 51% attack and the soft fork and hard fork.
Does forks because of 51% attack can also lead to new crypto currency creation?
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Automatically reverting soft forks
Recently, Harding discussed on bitcoin-dev mailing list an idea for a transitory soft fork activation e.g. for CTV. The idea (if I understood correctly) was that the activation would come with inbuilt ...
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Could the Lightning Network encounter any problems as a result of Taproot activating?
I was reading this excellent write up from Laolu Osuntokun on how the light client protocol Neutrino encountered a Taproot related issue on testnet. (Taproot is already active on testnet.)
Could the ...
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Taproot activates within the next 2 weeks. What could go wrong and what could be done to reduce probability of any of these bad case scenarios?
According to taproot.watch Taproot activates in approximately 10 days (block 709632) at the time of writing (November 4th 2021). What could go wrong with regards to bad case or worst case scenarios? ...
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What's coming to Bitcoin in 2022 and beyond?
Taproot is coming, Core is going to continue stepping the way to finally phasing out Berkeley DB at last.
Any other new soft fork in the works?
Is Bitcoin done with improvements yet?
At some point, ...
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How are OP_CSV and OP_CLTV backwards compatible
I am not able to see how older nodes prior to BIP 68, BIP112 and BIP 65 are able to prevent adding Transactions to their mempool when the newer rules are deliberately breached. I want to separate two ...
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Does a hard fork need to include a soft fork as well?
Using these definitions of soft fork and hard fork:
soft fork – tightening of the consensus rules, new blocks remain valid for old nodes
hard fork – loosening of the consensus rules, new blocks might ...
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How has the design of the opcode OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY evolved over its various renames?
OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY (BIP 119) has gone through various iterations. I don't particularly find the renames at all interesting (e.g. OP_CHECKOUTPUTSHASHVERIFY, OP_SECURETHEBAG) but I am interested in ...
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How would new jets for Simplicity be soft forked in? What prevents a miner from mining a new jet?
What is the current thinking on how new jets for Simplicity would be soft forked into Bitcoin (in a speculative future where Simplicity was already itself soft forked into Bitcoin)? What would happen ...
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What are the downsides to enabling potentially suboptimal or unused opcodes in a future soft fork?
It appears to me that there are various ways to build covenants and vaults with opcodes and sighash flags that are not yet enabled in Bitcoin (e.g. OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY, SIGHASH_ANYPREVOUT, OP_CAT).
...
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Who enforces new consensus rules in Bitcoin?
I have been reading at few places that miners will enforce new consensus rules. Examples:
https://twitter.com/BitMEXResearch/status/1391014115968274433
https://twitter.com/ajtowns/status/...
user103136
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How can I follow the progress of miner signaling for Taproot activation during the Speedy Trial deployment?
How can I follow the progress of miner signaling for Taproot activation during the Speedy Trial deployment? Can I use bitcoin-cli to track the signaling progress?
This was asked by pox on Mastodon and ...
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Will the miner be provided with reward if a hard fork occurs?
When will the miner be provide with reward(if at all) when a hard fork occurs?
When will the miner be provide with reward(if at all) when a soft fork occurs?
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Is there network split risk for Taproot activation with two releases (Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Taproot)?
In this article from Aaron van Wirdum he states there is a risk of a network split with two releases (Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Taproot) not following exactly the same activation mechanism(s)? Is this ...
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Should block height or MTP or a mixture of both be used in a soft fork activation mechanism?
Should block height or MTP (median time past defined in BIP 113) or a mixture of both be used in an activation mechanism like BIP 8 or BIP 9 for defining the timings of the state transitions?
What are ...
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Why is there no forced signaling during the LOCKED_IN phase of BIP 8(LOT=true)?
Why is there no forced signaling during the LOCKED_IN phase of BIP 8(LOT=true)?
During the MUST_SIGNAL phase of BIP 8(LOT=true) a threshold of miners have to signal. The next phase after MUST_SIGNAL ...
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Questions RE soft forks
I’m trying to understand how the Bitcoin network works a bit better and the main thing I’m having trouble with is forks, particularly soft forks. I have a few questions about how exactly a soft fork ...
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Why does the threshold apply to the MUST_SIGNAL phase in revised BIP 8 (lot=true)? Why doesn't it enforce 100 percent signaling?
BIP 8 states that:
During the MUST_SIGNAL phase, if (2016 - threshold) blocks in the
retarget period have already failed to signal, any further blocks that
fail to signal are invalid.
Why doesn't it ...
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Could Bitcoin Core leave the lockinontimeout parameter choice entirely to Bitcoin Core users and not set a default?
There doesn't appear to be overwhelming consensus on the lockinontimeout (LOT) parameter for the Taproot BIP 8 activation mechanism. I know some would strongly argue against doing this but could ...
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What is the point of miner signaling in a soft fork activation mechanism? What should the threshold be on miner signaling?
What is the point of miner signaling in a soft fork activation mechanism? What should the threshold be on miner signaling?
The second part of this question was asked by devrandom on IRC.
A question on ...
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What is the benefit of forced signaling in a soft fork activation mechanism?
What is the benefit of forced signaling in a soft fork activation mechanism? e.g. the MUST_SIGNAL phase in revised BIP 8.
I understand the benefits of setting lockinontimeout (LOT) to true (some of ...
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Can cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin be turned into a censored payment system under that would be financial regulation framework creating soft forks? [closed]
It s well known mining pools as well as hashing power is centralized in countries where electricity is cheap and using mining farms rather belonging to at least medium sized companies than single hand ...
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Were anyone-can-spend transactions valid before SegWit?
Non-segwit nodes (legacy nodes) see segwit transactions as anyone-can-spend (ACS) transactions. It is clear that such a nodes can (and do) validate blocks containing ACS transactions, because the ...
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What is a softchain?
What is softchain and how is it different from drivechain? What are associated tradeoffs and feedback from community?
user103136
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Broadcasting deprecated block version
With the recent addition of Binance to the group of miners who will accept taproot,
I wonder what would happen if despite a total of more than 99% of the network accepting it, a miner still doesn't ...
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How do BIP8 and BIP9 differ, how are they alike?
With Taproot on everyone's lips, people have started discussing activation approaches. The debate currently seems to favor BIP8. Previous soft forks used BIP9. How are the two related and what are the ...
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How do nodes verify backwards incompatible blocks?
When you start the initial block download with the latest versions of Bitcoin Core, how does your node know that old blocks were valid according to different rules prior to soft forks?
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Why is BIP133 listed as 'Draft' when it has been implemented for years?
BIP133 is listed as 'Draft' but it has been implemented since v.0.13.0
https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0133.mediawiki
Is there anything preventing it from being labelled as 'Final'?
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How do we know which soft-forks were implemented using User-Activated Soft Fork or Miner-Activated Soft Fork?
This seems to be the most common definition
When a majority of miners upgrade to enforce new rules, it is called a miner-activated soft fork (MASF). When full nodes coordinate to
enforce new rules, ...
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If I delay upgrading to the latest Bitcoin Core version post Taproot activation does my node ever verify early Taproot spends?
Let's assume the Taproot soft fork is activated in June 2021. I continue to run an old version of Bitcoin Core (not enforcing Taproot rules) in July 2021 and so my full node treats valid Taproot ...
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What is stopping a Taproot spend following old Taproot rules (initially treated as anyone-can-spend) pre-activation creating a re-org post activation?
This question is similar to this Signet question on Signet nodes enforcing different Taproot rules (old and new) pre mainnet activation. Instead it is regarding how a valid Taproot spend on mainnet ...
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Does a soft fork result in two different blockchain versions?
I've read the following:
Both forks create a split, but a hard fork creates two blockchains
and a soft fork is meant to result in one.
Let's consider 2 situations:
block size max limit is 1mb and ...
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Can we experiment on Signet with multiple proposed soft forks whilst maintaining the ability of full nodes to validate the Signet chain?
One of the goals of Signet is to test proposed soft forks before they are activated on mainnet. Not only does this mean proposed soft forks such as Taproot that at the time of writing (August 2020) ...
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What is the point of a soft fork when it's backwards compatible?
I understand a soft fork occurs when changes in the Bitcoin protocol are backwards compatible, but why is that a fork? Is there really a branch or is that just a formality? Or does this give me a ...
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A Bitcoin soft fork idea to help compress the blockchain
I've thought about a soft fork that can help storage costs.
Why don't we force miners to embed the height of the TX Merkle tree in the first two bytes of the 4-byte block header version?
It would ...
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