It appears yet another solution to scale bitcoin is being developed as we speak. A “bitcoin-infinity” patch is in the world for the Bitcoin Core client. This patch will maintain support for Segregated Witness and bigger blocks at the same time. Although this concept may sound appealing, the community’s opinions on this patch are divided.
On paper, the activation of SegWit will eventually introduce bigger network blocks. It seems somewhat strange for someone to issue a patch that will do the exact same thing. One Reddit user even warns how running this patch could make existing Core users incompatible with the network. Segregated Witness will pave the way for further scaling process, indicating there is no need for an additional patch by any means.
Bitcoin-infinity Is An Intriguing Proposal
Do keep in mind that before any of this can happen, SegWit will need to activate first. It is doubtful this will happen anytime soon due to the lack of network support. Most miners continue to support Bitcoin Unlimited, despite the multiple bugs and exploit found in its source code. It is possible this balance of power will shift in the coming months, but for now, SegWit will not activate anytime soon.
At the same time, this bitcoin-infinity patch seems to be a clean alternative solution in some regards. It seems to handle the proposed change sin a “cleaner” fashion than Bitcoin Unlimited wants to do. As one user points out, having miners vote to change consensus rules is “nonsense” in his opinion. Then again, there are different opinions regarding this matter as well.
What is rather intriguing about the bitcoin-infinity patch is what it embodies. To be more specific, the patch allows for a maximum block size of 32MB. That is quite a step up from the current 1MB blocks. The bigger question is whether or not we will ever need signaling for 32MB blocks to begin with. Moreover, it is unclear if any other developers reviewed this patch already and what their thoughts about it are.
Another interesting aspect about bitcoin-infinity is how it handles the hard fork. According to the GitHub page, Bitcoin Core wallet users will not see BTU-only outputs. It also provides access to BTU balances without even having to run Bitcoin unlimited itself, assuming the user runs a second Core instance with this patch enabled. Bitcoin-infinity is also trying to appeal BU supporters, though. Whether or not that will be a big success, remains to be seen.
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