[2017-04-13]Skeptics Show Concern as UASF Gains a Following

In February an anonymous pseudonym named Shaolinfry introduced a new idea to push the Segregated Witness (Segwit) implementation forward. The concept is called User Activated Soft Fork (UASF), which activates the Segwit protocol on a specific date and is executed by full nodes. While the idea has somewhat gained in popularity, it has also come under scrutiny from those who believe UASF may be contentious and could cause a blockchain split.
The User Activated Soft Fork Movement

Skeptics Show Concern as User Activated Fork Grows PopularThroughout many Bitcoin-focused social media forums, the UASF discussion can be seen far and wide. The basic plan is to get Segwit activated by utilizing the vote of full nodes otherwise referred to as the “economic majority.” The idea introduced two months ago by the anonymous Shaolinfry has excited Segwit supporters, and they have been rallying support for the proposal ever since. Shaolinfry’s BIP 148 proposal (UASF) states the concept may be possible because of the successful P2SH soft fork (BIP16) in the past.

Currently, the share of full nodes signaling BIP 148 is roughly around 5 percent at the time of writing, and two mining pools (Bitfury and Bitcoin India) have also indicated UASF support. Furthermore, roughly 22 Bitcoin-based companies such as Coinkite, Trezor, Bitpay, and more have publicly stated they will also support BIP 148. However, miners will be involved in the process as well, as the UASF Working Group website states;
To be clear, BIP148 is a soft fork that requires miners to activate the existing Segwit deployment. This is not the standard for UASF because normally nodes would just begin enforcement on a given “flag day” — Prior to August 1st, 2017, miners should either; update their node software to a BIP148-enforcing version; or run a BIP148 border node to filter out invalid blocks, and update their existing mining software to produce blocks with version 1 bit enabled, to vote for Segwit activation.
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