Posts Tagged ‘BIP 91

SegWit (Segregated Witness) adoption for Bitcoin (BTC) is currently underway as a means to increase the capacity of the Bitcoin blockchain blocks by separating signatures from transactions thus reducing the size of transactions. The problem with too much transactions on the limited 1MB block size has gotten serious enough for users to want a solution that would make Bitcoin transactions faster and with lower fees. SegWit is currently getting traction as a solution to the problem as opposed to just increasing the block size from the current limit of 1MB. Aside from increasing the capacity of transactions in the 1MB blocks SegWit also allows for improved security (improving security was the original goal).

There are still some issues with reaching a consensus if SegWit is the best solution to the further scaling of Bitcoin, but the problem has gotten serious enough that a solution, even if temporary solving the capacity problem is needed. The Bitcoin community is apparently reaching a conclusion that SegWith, although may not be perfect, might be the solution that we need badly and support is growing. With the recent fears of a possible Bitcoin split into different crypto currencies after a fork of the network we might very soon reach to a point where SegWit will have enough support to be locked in and then activated. SegWit is set to activate if at least 95 percent of the Bitcoin network hash power signals support for it, so miners and more specifically large mining pools have a big role here.

The recent activation of BIP 91 (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 91) has reassured users that a chain split for Bitcoin is not going to be very likely, but then again nothing is 100% sure yet. BIP 91 was just signaling the intention of miners to support SegWit activation and not 100% guarantee they will in fact do it. Still was met with a lot of optimism and we are moving along the path of activating SegWit and avoiding a possible split of Bitcoin.

You can track the current level of SegWit support on Coin Dance here…


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