Bitcoin War Is The Segwit War Not Bash Bitcoin Cash
Bash (I like to call it this way, familiar like Dash) or Bitcoin Cash came to existence after years of "being afraid". I listened to many luminaries, developers, interview in Let's Talk Bitcoin, Crypto Show, Andreas Antonopoulos, dozen of tech and maths blogs (Deadalnix); Roger Ver, Core and Uncore. Unlimited (I just finished listening to the old podcast by the Unlimited developer explaining their block size can move about but still based on Core's so blocks finally still 1MB) but have upper and lower limits.
Finally one brave soul, took it, laid it on the table, and ViaBTC and another mining pool agreed to just (fn) try it. If it fails, fine, we lose some hashrate days, nobody got hurt, no code destroyed.
The few parameter changes were simple: allow blocks to scale up or down to max of 8MB. Allow emergency difficulty adjustment to go low fast, if no hashrate (ie. nobody is building blocks - not enough people try to secure the chain by mining or building). This is smart, effective, non intrusive. Heck I even hoped no mining pool did any mining AT ALL, until hashrate is low for normal CPU to try and it could once again be the fun loving blockchain, and the original idea that the wallet, the node, the miner, the lottery, the user is ONE.
We subcontracted out the mining when things get too big. It is like when you get so rich, you start subcontracting making food, or laundry, or cleaning your room to another person, to a maid.
In the Bridge To Terabithia, the fun part was painting the wall together. Not subcontract it to a painter.
Anyway he clearly stated it is better to try than keep thinking of being afraid, afraid of politics, afraid no miners, afraid being ridiculed, afraid of banks, afraid of miners, afraid of Core or Uncore, afraid of vegans, afraid of the dark.
Now this settled. 8MB (adjustable) blocks have proven to be rather popular for miners, users (especially since fees are back to good old days, a couple of cents). Let them live happily and do their own thing.
The Segwit side of things is the big question mark. THere are two teams now. Segwit and Segwit+2MB.
Now Segwit itself is completely re-wiring the workings of a block. The fundamental definition of a block. So this is a crucial technical part everyone should be aware of.
Lego pieces are 8 legged, and we connect the next block to the 4 legs of the other. Now Segwit is removing one leg (removing the signature) I know this is not the ultimate analogy. But it seems the closest. Yes we can still connect. But something is looking strange. It may not be apparent. But it could potentially have some crazy effects some day in the future.
Segwit VS Segwit2X is a war.
If BitcoinSegwit has all the most of the hashrate and exchanges, does it mean the other will go down? Not necessarily. It could pan out just like Bash.
If SegWit2X gets most support, exchanges and mining does it mean Segwit (normal or Segwit Core) will die? No too.
But it will be quite an intellectual fight. The other will not concede and the winner likely not going to be friends anymore. Not accepting them into their development environment anymore. Just as they were booted out from developing.
These outcast (whoever wins and whoever gets to be outcast) are still very intelligent people. They will now focus on creating the right attack scheme, since the attack vector (Segwit) is now widely adopted and open. Ironically, there is no way of attacking Bash, since Bash still follows the humble beginnings of plain old 8 legged Lego pieces.
The altcoin name calling now would be the kettle calling the pot black scenario. Now the Segwit (both varieties) are the altcoins.
Hey Tuv,
Good post, but it might be a bit long for Steemit. It might have benefited from being split into a few different parts.
Thanks lexiconical for your insight and suggestion. Will do that for future posts, still learning about the formatting too. Previously I wrote exclusively in PentaPrison. Now migrating here as part experimental and seems a great place to be.
Interesting, I hadn't heard of that site! What an intimidating name.
It's a word play on pentaprism. Just like wordplay by John Lennon_ beetle became Beat-le. Beatles.
Thank you for educating me, I had no idea! Clever.