This is intended as a gentle question to those in the know.
It is prompted because bitcoin is going from strength to strength, but at the same time, it is recognized that improvements to the opensource which support it are necessary for its long-term success. Not all improvements can be fully backwards compatible.
The transition method of using
block version numbers and a
super-majority for determining finality is extremely fair and clever. It would seem a good prototype for all future changes which are significant enough to affect backward compatibility.
The table below is a nice illustration of this transition in progress:
http://blockorigin.pfoe.be/top.phpSo, I am trying to find out now whether this transition method is likely to succeed for bitcoin.