Bitmain Announces Hard Fork Protection Plan Against UASF

On June 14 the Beijing-based bitcoin company Bitmain released a contingency plan for the upcoming so called user activated soft fork (UASF) that’s scheduled for August 1. The announcement details that if the UASF is attempted a protection plan called a user activated hard fork (UAHF) will be deployed.

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Bitmain Announces Backup Plan for UASF

According to Bitmain’s announcement UASF or BIP 148 is a dangerous attempt to split the network. The company believes UASF will have severe consequences and referred to the plan as an “attack” or a “wipe out” where there is no backup plan.      

“The UASF chain presents a risk of the original chain being wiped out,” explains Bitmain’s blog post. “If there is no contingency plan, all economic activity that occurs on the original chain after the UASF forking point will face the risk of being wiped out. This has disastrous consequences for the entire Bitcoin ecosystem.”

Astroturfing Movement Stands in the Way of Segwit2X

Bitmain says that a significant economic majority and more than 80 percent of the hashrate signed on to support the New York Agreement (Segwit2X) on May 24th, 2017. According to the company, Bitcoin Core developers declined invitations to attend the meeting. Bitmain says they support the agreement and want it to happen as soon as possible. Furthermore, the firm details the development has been very active on Github and the alpha version of Segwit2X will be delivered on June 16 on time. However, Bitmain believes there is a movement taking place on forums threatening to put the Bitcoin ecosystem at risk.

“Despite this agreement, the UASF (BIP148) astroturfing movement continues to get lots of airtime on censored forums, many of which are controlled by single anonymous individuals,” Bitmain states.

Many of the software developers who work in a software project called “Bitcoin Core” are also supporting it. BIP148 poses a significant risk for the Bitcoin ecosystem, so we are preparing a contingency plan to protect the economic activity on the Bitcoin blockchain from this threat. — The New York agreement is also continuously and intentionally sabotaged by a group of software developers working on Bitcoin Core.

Bitmain Will Work With Developers and Dedicate Resources to the UAHF Contingency Plan

Because of the threat to the network on August 1 the company believes the community should be prepared for the “disruptive risk.” Bitmain further details there is no replay attack protection for UASF and lots of users and businesses may suffer with issues. Following the company’s perception of BIP 148 Bitmain details the UAHF contingency plan and replay protection.

Bitmain says they will be working with the developer community on the contingency plan and will deploy some of its own hashrate towards the UAHF. “We will develop options for miners to voluntarily join us,” the company also details.

Bitmain will mine the chain for a minimum of 72 hours after the BIP148 forking point with a certain percentage of hash rate supplied by our own mining operations. Bitmain will likely not release immediately the mined blocks to the public network unless circumstances call for it, which means that Bitmain will mine such chain privately first.

The contingency plan is a long read that is very descriptive and technical. Bitmain concludes by saying that they recommend Bitcoin businesses research the effects a UASF will have on the network. The company believes everyone should be prepared to “mitigate or eliminate the risks that UASF carries.”

What do you think about Bitmain’s recent announcement? Do you agree or disagree with the company’s move here? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

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