Bitcoin Cash Upgrades Won't Cause Permanent Forks
May's upgrade will not cause Bitcoin Cash to split in two, developers say.
Key Takeaways
- Bitcoin Cash devs have discussed the project's next upgrade.
- Those developers have stated that there will almost certainly be no chain split when the upgrade occcurs in May.
- Developers aim to use social standards, not technical rules, to prevent chain splits from occurring in the future.
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Bitcoin Cash developers have assured the cryptocurrency community that the blockchain is unlikely to undergo a chain split when it undergoes its next upgrade on May 6, 2021.
Bitcoin Cash Won’t Split In May
Cameron Lee, a musician who accepts Bitcoin Cash in his online storefront, asked developers if there will be a split during the blockchain’s next upgrade in May.
He noted that the community endured Bitcoin Cash’s 2018 hard fork, in which a faction split off to create a new blockchain called Bitcoin SV led by Craig Wright. Bitcoin Cash also withstood the Infrastructure Funding Plan (IFP) controversy in 2020, in which a faction led by Amaury Séchet attempted a similar split.
Bitcoin Cash developer Josh Green responded by stating that future splits are unlikely. He noted that it would be “difficult for a split to happen at this point,” as an alternate node team would need to deliberately advocate for change and gain a significant share of Bitcoin Cash’s mining power.
“For anybody other than BCHN, [that is] an uphill battle,” he noted, adding that users can be confident that there will be no split in May.
Paul Wasensteiner, Executive Director of the Bitcoin Cash Association, added that the goal is to have no splits at all, ideally not for several years. He added that discussions such as the one held by developers this month should help prevent splits by bringing together members of the blockchain’s ecosystem.
“It’s not just about May, it’s about all of the foreseeable future of Bitcoin Cash,” Wasensteiner concluded.
Social, Not Technical, Solutions
Another developer, Emergent Reasons, noted that Bitcoin Cash and similar blockchains are designed so that miners can voluntarily split the blockchain. However, he says that there is “basically no chance” of that, and that nobody desires a split.
Emergent Reasons concluded that there is no single approach to ensuring that future splits do not occur. However, he says that the development community aims to establish a culture or social standard that immediately makes it clear how businesses and developers feel about proposed changes.
Another developer, Andrea Suisani, concurred that there is no technical feature in Bitcoin Cash that will prevent the project from undergoing splits in the near future or later on.
Agreement within the community is pressing given the blockchain’s high standing. Bitcoin Cash is currently the 11th largest cryptocurrency by market cap, with a valuation of $8.9 billion.
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