RE " It's not like other software where people can choose to skip an upgrade and things still work just like before."
If you're a minority, sure you can. Still a few nutters out there on a 0.3.x codebase, including one or two inattentive, now-inconsequential miners. There is some headroom built in for just that... less disruptive upgrades that don't require 100%. On Fri, Oct 3, 2014 at 4:58 PM, Mike Hearn <m...@plan99.net> wrote: > Alright. It seems there's no real disagreement about how the opcode behaves. > Perhaps a time limit would be appropriate to stop people creating outputs > locked for 100 years .... is bitcoin even likely to exist in 100 years? The > entire history of computing is not even that old, seems hard to imagine that > it'd be good for anything beyond wasting space in the database. But this is > a minor point. > > So I guess it's time to start the deployment discussion. > > Bitcoin is a consensus system. It works best when everyone is following > exactly the same rules at the same time. A soft fork works against this > principle by allowing nodes to think they're following the majority ruleset, > even if they aren't, effectively downgrading them to something a bit like > SPV security without them realising. > > A hard fork has multiple desirable properties. Most importantly, it means a > node can detect it's no longer in the consensus because it'll find its own > chain height has diverged significantly from its peers. Core already has > code that knows how to detect this condition and log errors about it as well > as running the alertnotify script i.e. emailing the admin. Ideally it would > also stop serving work so miners shut down or fail over, but this is easily > added to the CheckForkWarningConditions() function. > > In other words, this gives the cleanest failure we can give, such that any > procedures a node operator has put in place to alert them of divergence will > be triggered. Any code which is waiting for confirmations will wait forever > at this point, thus minimising the risk of loss. > > Additionally, forcing old peers to fall behind means SPV clients will pick > the right chain, and not end up downloading transactions or blocks that are > about to be doomed at the next re-org. They can easily choose to ignore > transactions relayed by peers that are too far behind and thus not end up > accepting transactions that are no longer valid according to the majority (a > scenario which can cause monetary loss). > > I don't think hard forks should be scary. Mechanisms are in place to warn > people and they can be scheduled with plenty of time in advance. The main > stated justification for a soft fork is backwards compatibility, but in a > system like Bitcoin you really don't want to be running behind the consensus > and it's hard to imagine any node operator deliberately choosing to stay on > the wrong side of the fork. It's not like other software where people can > choose to skip an upgrade and things still work just like before. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Meet PCI DSS 3.0 Compliance Requirements with EventLog Analyzer > Achieve PCI DSS 3.0 Compliant Status with Out-of-the-box PCI DSS Reports > Are you Audit-Ready for PCI DSS 3.0 Compliance? Download White paper > Comply to PCI DSS 3.0 Requirement 10 and 11.5 with EventLog Analyzer > http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=154622311&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk > _______________________________________________ > Bitcoin-development mailing list > Bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bitcoin-development > -- Jeff Garzik Bitcoin core developer and open source evangelist BitPay, Inc. https://bitpay.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Meet PCI DSS 3.0 Compliance Requirements with EventLog Analyzer Achieve PCI DSS 3.0 Compliant Status with Out-of-the-box PCI DSS Reports Are you Audit-Ready for PCI DSS 3.0 Compliance? Download White paper Comply to PCI DSS 3.0 Requirement 10 and 11.5 with EventLog Analyzer http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=154622311&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ Bitcoin-development mailing list Bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bitcoin-development
