"V for Vendetta" GIFs, "Walking Dead" references, images of tornadoes – even bitcoin's infamous 'BearWhale' has returned to welcome an approaching attempt to upgrade bitcoin.
While there have been many efforts aimed at improving the digital currency's protocol in recent years, few have attracted as fervent a following as bitcoin improvement proposal (BIP) 148.
Drafted in an effort to rally the community behind a process called a user-activated soft fork (UASF), the proposal is distinguished by being less reliant on gaining support from network miners. In fact, BIP 148 is the UASF with the shortest timeline to launch – and it's activating on the 1st August.
While some reject the growing support for BIP 148 as a kind of populist uprising, others believe it will lead to users having better control over the direction of the protocol. As per usual, opinions are split.
Because the change aims to circumvent what some consider a decision by miners not to signal support for Segregated Witness, a scaling solution preferred by Bitcoin Core developers, some have dubbed the upgrade date 'Bitcoin Independence Day'.
Alphonse Pace, a developer and supporter of BIP 148, told CoinDesk:
"[T]here's no way to put it back in Pandora's box. The code is out; it's being run by economic nodes. Either we split on 1st August, or SegWit is activated."Read full article here: http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoins-independence-day-could-users-tip-the-scales-in-the-scaling-debate/
