Mike Belshe (Segwit2x): We never wanted a chain split, but Segwit is just not enough

10/19/2017 - 15:01 UTC
Mike Belshe (Segwit2x): We never wanted a chain split, but Segwit is just not enough

Co-Founder & CEO of BitGo, Mike Belshe, penned an interesting article where he claims the polarizing Segwit2x upgrade has been designed to keep the Bitcoin community together, rather than dividing it. He rejects "replay protection" as a misnomer in the Segwit2x context.

Belshe, a Bitcoin pioneer himself, is determined to make the digital currency usable for business. To achieve this status, though, Bitcoin needs to scale – everybody agree on that.

But there are different views as to how scaling can be accomplished. Belshe is on the “Big Blockers” side; people who believe Bitcoin should scale on-chain, by increasing the famous 1MB block size limit, before trying any sidechain solutions (i.e., Lightning etc.).

In his article, the BitGo boss notes that for a long time, before Segwit2x, the Bitcoin community had been struggling to approve “any form of on-chain scalability at all, including Segwit.” That’s where Segwit2x was born as very “small, surgical fix” to move things forward with a compromise: support both  Segwit and a block limit raise to 2MB.

Belshe sees Segwit2X as a small change to the protocol: only changes in block format while leaving transactions intact.

By doing so, 99.5% of nodes on the network do not need to be modified, Belshe adds.

Belshe does not take into account arguments and concerns of the "other" side of the scaling debate about the increased block size without replay protection. On the contrary, he hints that Segwit, activated in Bitcoin network in August, has not delivered yet. That’s because Segwit is a much more substantial change which needs every one (wallets, nodes, etc.) to upgrade in order to take benefit. At the moment Segwit transactions have reached 14%, but Belshe feels this not the way to measure its impact:

To date, even 2 months after Segwit’s activation, blockchain capacity has only increased by approximately 6%, he notes.

Belshe goes on to explain the types of nodes in the Bitcoin network. There are, he says, about 8,500 public full nodes, 90,000 private full nodes, and about 15,000,000 SPV nodes (light Bitcoin clients which do not fully verify each block). Of all them, only full nodes need to upgrade to Segwit2x/2MB compatible clients. The rest, millions of SPV nodes, need no upgrade at all, he adds and explains: “They work today as Bitcoin clients, and they will work tomorrow as Bitcoin clients — on the longest chain”. Belshe even has a pie graph showing how many Bitcoin nodes are Segwit2x-ready even now.

That’s why Belshe rejects the calls to implement “replay protection”. It is well-intentioned, he acknowledges, but “a misnomer when it comes to Segwit2x”. Why? Because replay protection requires changing the transaction format, which means all these millions of SPV nodes would be incompatible with the Segwit2x chain, once the hard fork is active.

Belshe: Replay protection is a misnomer when it comes to Segwit2x

The article, retweeted by lead developer Jeff Garzik, is worth reading as it communicates the thinking inside the Segwit2x work group. With miners signaling for Segwit2x support at levels of ~85%,  Belshe is confident that the proposed Bitcoin upgrade will be successful.

For the rest of us, we need just to watch how the whole thing will evolve in coming November. And remember to secure our private keys in order to survive the upcoming Bitcoin hard forks.

 

Image: mike @ belshe.com

Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide, investment advice on Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies or finance in general.