[2017-03-14]Antpool Founder: We Will Switch Our Entire Pool to Bitcoin Unlimited

[dingmei1]

It appears that the structure underlying the fastest growing digital currency, Bitcoin, has reached a crossroads with support increasing for Bitcoin Unlimited (BU).

Blockchain, the distributed ledger which verifies bitcoin transactions, is experiencing a backlog of transactions waiting to be verified. In February, it was reported that around 900,000 Bitcoins, amounting to around a billion dollars at the time, were stuck, waiting to move, due to limited transaction capacity.

However, while that number went down to around 300,000 Bitcoins, that number went back up to nearly 900,000 again.


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Support for Bitcoin Unlimited

Now, though, the Bitcoin community is turning its attention to BU as a potential solution that could solve the backlog issues.

In a report from Bloomberg, if the proposed idea fails, Bitcoin could potentially face a hard fork, effectively splitting the currency into two.

In a recent report from CCN, BU reached around 40 percent in support over a 24-hour period earlier this week, which is currently its highest ever. Miners such as Antpool, Bitcoin’s biggest mining pool, have switched to BU.

Wu Jihan, founder of Antpool, which has around 14 percent of the network’s hardware share, said in an interview:

We will switch our entire pool to Bitcoin Unlimited. We can’t tell how the hard fork will play out. We will only know by the time we get there.

Roger Ver, an early Bitcoin supporter and advocate of BU, is said to have attracted around three percent of global miners, convincing them to back Bitcoin Unlimited. According to Bloomberg, Ver needs to get 60 to 70 percent of miners on board to activate BU, with Ver claiming that he is nearly halfway to achieving the goal.

What is Bitcoin Unlimited?

BU is a software upgrade to blockchain. During the early days of blockchain, developers had imposed a cap on how much data the technology could process. And yet, while this slowed the network down, it was believed to be a failsafe measure to ensure that criminals didn’t attack the system.

Now, though, many supporters of blockchain claim that the blockchain is so robust that it doesn’t require a capped limited. Coinbase, Bitpay, Blockchain.info and Bitgo are just a few businesses that have advocated for bigger blocks in general, complaining about delays with the current setup.

Critics of Bitcoin Unlimited

Yet, there are critics of the new software too.

Peter Todd, a key coding contributor to Bitcoin, is reported as saying that by removing the data cap it could potentially leave the currency vulnerable to governments and global banks.

Bloomberg reports Todd as saying:

Bitcoin Unlimited is simply irredeemably broken. Large miners have every reason to vote the size up to push their competition out of business.

Ver states, though, that it’s worth taking the risk of BU.

If bitcoin is more expensive or slower than traditional financial systems, people aren’t going to use it.
https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/antpool-founder-will-switch-entire-pool-bitcoin-unlimited/

[Slow death]

If bitcoin is more expensive or slower than traditional financial systems, people aren’t going to use it.

I do not understand the technical aspects that are being discussed, but I must say that some things should change, people will not be happy to use an expensive and very slow service, even if this service is decentralized and pseudo anonymous

The other day I stayed 2 days waiting for a transaction to confirm and just confirmed because I used the viabtc service.

[1Referee]

I must say that some things should change, people will not be happy to use an expensive and very slow service, even if this service is decentralized and pseudo anonymous

That's the exact reason Bitcoin is not, and will not be a decent local currency tool. It's mind boggling that some people still think that it could help third world countries and all other related nonsense. People there drive on micro transactions, and exactly that is something that Bitcoin can't help them with, unless they are willing to pay big time (in relation to the transaction value) to have it confirmed. It doesn't make any sense.

The other day I stayed 2 days waiting for a transaction to confirm and just confirmed because I used the viabtc service.

Was it you that set up the transaction or a different party? If it was you, then you can perform a double spend where you happen to include a much higher fee. If this transaction gets confirmed, the other not confirming transaction will then get dropped automatically. It can save you plenty of hours waiting.

[TraderTimm]

If bitcoin is more expensive or slower than traditional financial systems, people aren’t going to use it.

I do not understand the technical aspects that are being discussed, but I must say that some things should change, people will not be happy to use an expensive and very slow service, even if this service is decentralized and pseudo anonymous

The other day I stayed 2 days waiting for a transaction to confirm and just confirmed because I used the viabtc service.

I just used Bitcoin for a transaction and my first confirm was just outside of 10 minutes. I don't know what the hell you are doing, but it sure isn't using the network effectively.

I'm tired of these "WHERE'S MY CONFIRMS" posts where there are NO details, and NO reference to fees paid, or any other bit of proof outside someone complaining.

Oh, and AntMiner is signing their death warrant by aligning with BU. Mark my words.... this isn't going to be pretty...

[notthematrix]

The other day I stayed 2 days waiting for a transaction to confirm and just confirmed because I used the viabtc service.

yiu should use a full nide wallet , works way fester like bitcoin-qt

[notthematrix]

If bitcoin is more expensive or slower than traditional financial systems, people aren’t going to use it.

I do not understand the technical aspects that are being discussed, but I must say that some things should change, people will not be happy to use an expensive and very slow service, even if this service is decentralized and pseudo anonymous

The other day I stayed 2 days waiting for a transaction to confirm and just confirmed because I used the viabtc service.

I just used Bitcoin for a transaction and my first confirm was just outside of 10 minutes. I don't know what the hell you are doing, but it sure isn't using the network effectively.

I'm tired of these "WHERE'S MY CONFIRMS" posts where there are NO details, and NO reference to fees paid, or any other bit of proof outside someone complaining.

Oh, and AntMiner is signing their death warrant by aligning with BU. Mark my words.... this isn't going to be pretty...

I think a lot of people will switch away from antminer as a pool!.

BTW its cryptocoin news take this with a big grain of salt , because they are refuse to place critnical comments on its storty's

[darkangel11]

The other day I stayed 2 days waiting for a transaction to confirm and just confirmed because I used the viabtc service.

yiu should use a full nide wallet , works way fester like bitcoin-qt

That happened because you put a very low fee. Probably something between 0.0002 and 0.0004, as this is what people were used to doing a year ago and never increased it manually. You need at least twice more for the transaction to go faster.

I'm not a supporter of BU, but I'm sure we can't continue as it is. We definitely need a software update of some sort.

[ImHash]

Some people post without checking their spells are we mining unlimited blocks yet? I don't think so, what matters is that all blocks mined are under 1MB in size.


Please if you want to have microtransactions and pay zero or very low fees compared to bitcoin then better use alt coins for that purpose and if you are using bitcoin then paying $0.5 or $1 as a fee shouldn't hurt you financially, so until every one decide and vote in consensus for the available proposals try to help the network by paying at least the recommended fees and stop whining.