80% Of Bitcoin Miners Agree on July 2017 Hard-Fork

Amid a bull run in prices, 80% of Bitcoin’s mining power has officially come out in support of a hard-fork which could be standard for all users “around July 2017.”

Also read: Bitcoin’s Biggest Names Come Together Warning of ‘Contentious Hard-Forks’

Consensus, not Contentious?

A round table group of signatories including several mining pools, as well as exchanges and Core developers, released a statement outlining a more concrete timeline following a physical meeting in Hong Kong.

The consensus represents a U-turn for some participants, who had previously put their names to a round table statement advising against the use of “contentious hard-forks” and urging the community to “hold off on making any decision.”

This time, however, the parties present appeared more unified than ever before on how to resolve Bitcoin’s capacity issue and, more poignantly, when any wide-reaching changes should take place.

The development of a “safe” hard-fork based on the improvements offered by Segregated Witness (known as SegWit) transaction alteration will form the basis of future activity governing every Bitcoin transaction.

“We will continue to work with the entire Bitcoin protocol development community to develop, in public, a safe hard-fork based on the improvements in SegWit,” the statement reads. It adds:

“The Bitcoin Core contributors present at the Bitcoin Roundtable will have an implementation of such a hard-fork available as a recommendation to Bitcoin Core within three months after the release of SegWit.”

Hard-Fork: Community-Dependent

The report of the meeting’s contents, which includes a timeline of events, is careful to reiterate that any major changes would only be adopted with “strong community support”:

Tone Vays (@Tone_LLT )

The news coincides with a sudden surge in price activity following several weeks of stagnation. As of Sunday, bitcoin is currently fluctuating at around $430 USD, up from around $375 a week ago. Transaction numbers meanwhile remain fairly constant.

However, the seemingly buoyant reaction to the move is not being greeted with unanimous applause. Tone Vays, head of research at BraveNewCoin, told Bitcoin.com that internal sparring between developers of rival blockchains could, in fact, be pushing others into making the abrupt decisions they had previously advocated against.

“The controversy started by disgruntled Bitcoin developers has pushed the Core Team to commit to changes and timelines they might not have wanted, like the creation of a hard fork that could have been avoided,” he said in emailed comments, continuing:

Just like any other politician, the Classic Team will now pat themselves on the back for solving this controversy they created and looks like bitcoin price is going up on this news.

What is your take on the feasibility and reliability of the current proposals? Get involved in the comments section below!

Images courtesy of www.pxleyes.com

The post 80% Of Bitcoin Miners Agree on July 2017 Hard-Fork appeared first on Bitcoin News.