Difference between revisions of "Bitcoin XT"

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|author=[[Gavin Andresen]]<br/>[[Mike Hearn]]
 
|author=[[Gavin Andresen]]<br/>[[Mike Hearn]]
 
|website=[https://bitcoinxt.software bitcoinxt.software]
 
|website=[https://bitcoinxt.software bitcoinxt.software]
}}'''Bitcoin XT''' is an implementation of a Bitcoin full node that aims to make transactions reliable, inexpensive, and accessible. It is based upon the source code of [[Bitcoin Core]]. It achieved significant notoriety after adopting [[BIP 0101]], making it an important proponent of the [[block size limit controversy]].
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}}'''Bitcoin XT''' was a fork of [[Bitcoin Core]] created by [[Mike Hearn]] in 2014. Originally designed to introduce alternative P2P rules, it later gained significant notoriety and support after its adoption of [[BIP 0101|BIP 101]] without community support in 2015, giving it importance in the [[block size limit controversy]].<ref name="ooc">{{cite web|work=[[The Neighbourhood Pool Watch]]|author=[[organofcorti]]|title=BIP101 implementation flaws|date=27 August 2015|accessdate=27 August 2015|url=http://organofcorti.blogspot.com/2015/08/bip101-implementation-flaws.html}}</ref> After Andresen's resignation from the position of [[Bitcoin Core]] maintainer, he and [[Mike Hearn]] organized Bitcoin XT to address several controversial ideas lacking the consensus required to be implemented in Bitcoin Core.<ref>{{cite web|work=Medium|title=An XT FAQ|author=[[Mike Hearn|Hearn, Mike]]|date=27 August 2015|accessdate=27 August 2015|url=https://medium.com/@octskyward/an-xt-faq-38e78aa32ff0}}</ref>
  
After the inauguration of [[Wladimir van der Laan]] to the position of [[Core maintainer]], Bitcoin XT was organized by [[Gavin Andresen]] and [[Mike Hearn]] to address controversial ideas lacking the consensus required to be implemented in Bitcoin Core.
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BIP 101 was implemented in Bitcoin XT on August 6, 2015<ref>[https://github.com/bitcoinxt/bitcoinxt/commit/946e3ba8c7806a66c2b834d3817ff0c986c0811b]</ref> and released on August 15.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://medium.com/@octskyward/why-is-bitcoin-forking-d647312d22c1|title=Why is Bitcoin forking? — Faith and future|author=Mike Hearn|work=Medium}}</ref> If 75% of the last 1000 blocks were observed to have particular version bits set, it would have ceased enforcing the 1 MB block size limit and also have added a few new rules. However, this threshold was never achieved and no new XT blocks are being created today.{{citation needed}}
  
==Mission statement==
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In January 2016, BIP 101 was removed from Bitcoin XT and replaced with the one-time block size increase to 2 MB present in [[Bitcoin Classic]].<ref>https://github.com/bitcoinxt/bitcoinxt/pull/117</ref> In the year following this change, adoption of Bitcoin XT decreased dramatically, with fewer than 30 nodes remaining by January 2017.<ref name="cdns">{{cite web |url=https://coin.dance/nodes/xt |title=Bitcoin XT Nodes Summary |work=coin.dance |accessdate=7 January 2017 }}</ref> Later attempts by other codebases to increase the block size to 2 MB including Bitcoin Classic and [[SegWit2x]] have also failed.<ref name="cd">{{cite web|url=https://www.coindesk.com/no-fork-no-fire-segwit2x-nodes-stall-running-abandoned-bitcoin-code/|title=No Fork, No Fire: Segwit2x Nodes Stall Running Abandoned Bitcoin Code|work=[[CoinDesk]]|author=Higgins, Stan|date=November 17, 2017|accessdate=November 29, 2017}}</ref>
The XT mission statement defines what the project believes is important: commitment to these principles are what differentiates us from Bitcoin Core. We try to follow Satoshi's original vision, as it is that vision which brought the Bitcoin community together.
 
 
 
* '''Scaling the network up to handle user demand is important''', even if that means the network changes along the way. It's what Satoshi wanted<ref>[http://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/emails/cryptography/2/ Re: Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper]</ref> and the idea of a global system used by ordinary people is what motivated many of us to join him.
 
* '''XT provides people with information they need''', even if using it requires them to make risk based decisions. For example:
 
** We believe '''unconfirmed transactions are important'''. Many merchants want or need to accept payments within seconds rather than minutes or hours. XT accepts this fact and does what it can to minimise the risk, then help sellers judge what remains. It is committed to the first seen rule<ref>[http://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/emails/cryptography/8/ Re: Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper]</ref>. We will not adopt changes that make unconfirmed transactions riskier.
 
** '''Lightweight wallets are important'''. Most users cannot or will not run a fully verifying node. Most of the world population does not even own a computer: they will experience the internet exclusively via smartphones. These users must sacrifice some security in order to participate, so XT supports whatever technical tradeoffs wallet developers wish to explore.
 
* '''Decision making is quick and clear'''. Decisions are made according to a leadership hierarchy. The XT software encodes decisions that follow the above principles: people who disagree are welcome to use different software, or patch ours. We do not consider writing principled software to be centralising and do not refuse to select reasonable defaults.
 
* The Bitcoin XT community is friendly, pragmatic, cares about app developers and considers the user experience in everything we do. We value professionalism in technical approach and communication. We run a moderated mailing list and do not tolerate troublemakers.
 
 
 
You can [https://bitcoinxt.software/patches.html read more about the code changes in Bitcoin XT].
 
 
 
==Block size hard fork==
 
Many years ago, a capacity limit was introduced into Bitcoin by [[Satoshi]]. He intended it to be removed once lightweight wallets were developed, however, this was never done. It is expected that soon Bitcoin will be out of capacity and experiencing reliability problems as a result. The Bitcoin Core developers are currently unwilling to increase the block chain's capacity, so miners and users who disagree with them must either switch to Bitcoin XT, or apply the bigblocks patches<ref>[https://github.com/bitcoinxt/bitcoinxt/tree/only-bigblocks Big blocks patches on GitHub]</ref> manually.
 
 
 
There has been much community [[Block size limit controversy|debate]] on this topic. You can read analysis and explanations for why we think raising the block size limit is important here:
 
 
 
* [http://gavinandresen.ninja/ A series of essays] by [[Gavin Andresen]]
 
* [https://medium.com/@octskyward/crash-landing-f5cc19908e32 Why the block size limit must be raised] and [https://medium.com/@octskyward/the-capacity-cliff-586d1bf7715e why the proposed alternative schemes will not work], by [[Mike Hearn]].
 
  
 
==Miners==
 
==Miners==
By mining with Bitcoin XT you will produce blocks with a new version number. This indicates to the rest of the network that you support larger blocks. When 75% of the blocks are new-version blocks, a decision has been reached to start building larger blocks that will be rejected by Bitcoin Core nodes. At that point a waiting period of two weeks begins to allow news of the new consensus to spread and allow anyone who hasn't upgraded yet to do so. During this time, existing Bitcoin Core nodes will be printing a message notifying the operators about the availability of an upgraded version.
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Miners that side with Bitcoin XT will produce blocks with a new version number.<ref name="avc">{{cite web|title=The Bitcoin XT Fork|work=AVC|author=Wilson, Fred|date=17 August 2015|accessdate=28 August 2015|url=http://avc.com/2015/08/the-bitcoin-xt-fork/}}</ref> This indicates to the rest of the network that they support XT.<ref name="avc"/> When 75% of the last 1000 blocks are new-version blocks, these miners will automatically abandon Bitcoin and begin mining on a new Bitcoin XT blockchain.<ref name="avc"/> This will begin after a waiting period of two weeks in hopes the economy in this time may force anyone who hasn't switched yet to do so.<ref name="avc"/>
  
If the hard fork occurs and you are still mining with Bitcoin Core, your node will reject the first new block that is larger than one megabyte in size. At that point there is a risk your newly mined coins will not be accepted at major exchanges or merchants.
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Users and miners running full Bitcoin nodes will reject the XT blockchain starting with the first block that is larger than one megabyte in size, and thus be unaffected provided it fails to achieve economic consensus.
  
'''Soft limit'': Like Core, Bitcoin XT supports configuring the maximum size of blocks to mine. When set your node will not create blocks larger than the limit, although it will still accept them. By default the soft limit is not used, but it can be configured if you feel your blocks are being orphaned too frequently due to propagation delays.  
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==Users and merchants==
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If insufficient mining hash power runs XT to reach supermajority then nothing will happen. If enough does, XT users will follow a new blockchain and cease to be using and trading bitcoins.
  
==Users and merchants==
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==Controversy==
If insufficient mining hash power runs XT to reach supermajority then nothing will happen. If enough does, you will follow the new chain and things will continue as normal.
 
  
Additionally, XT has a useful feature: double spend monitoring and relaying. By running XT you help propagate information about double spends across the network, making it harder for payment fraudsters to steal from sellers by broadcasting two conflicting transactions simultaneously.
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Later in January 2016, frustrated of his proposal being massively outvoted, Mike Hearn made a media stunt declaring on various US national and international press agencies that "Bitcoin has failed". Max Keiser quoted Bram Cohen <ref>Whiny Ragequitting https://medium.com/@bramcohen/whiny-ragequitting-cab164b1e88</ref> in describing Hearn's move as "whiny rage quitting" <ref>Mike Hearn's move from Bitcoin to Banks - Stacy Herbert, Max Keiser & Simon Dixon discuss https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubqjei3Jd-U</ref>  and other members of the community pointed to an extensive account of manipulations http://gettopical.com/bitcoin/e289a9a5189008d994e80666e9038089 (unfortunately today many twitter screenshots are broken).
  
 
==See Also==
 
==See Also==
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[[Category:Block size limit controversy]]
 
[[Category:Block size limit controversy]]
 
[[Category:Direct code forks of Bitcoin Core]]
 
[[Category:Direct code forks of Bitcoin Core]]
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[[Category:Failed hardforks]]
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[[Category:Contentious hardforks]]
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[[Category:User Interfaces]]
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[[Category:Frontends]]
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[[Category:Free Software]]
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[[Category:Open Source]]

Revision as of 22:10, 3 March 2019

Bitcoin XT
Xt.png
Bitcoinxt.png
The identifying marks of an XT client
Original authorsGavin Andresen
Mike Hearn
Websitebitcoinxt.software
Bitcoin XT was a fork of Bitcoin Core created by Mike Hearn in 2014. Originally designed to introduce alternative P2P rules, it later gained significant notoriety and support after its adoption of BIP 101 without community support in 2015, giving it importance in the block size limit controversy.[1] After Andresen's resignation from the position of Bitcoin Core maintainer, he and Mike Hearn organized Bitcoin XT to address several controversial ideas lacking the consensus required to be implemented in Bitcoin Core.[2]

BIP 101 was implemented in Bitcoin XT on August 6, 2015[3] and released on August 15.[4] If 75% of the last 1000 blocks were observed to have particular version bits set, it would have ceased enforcing the 1 MB block size limit and also have added a few new rules. However, this threshold was never achieved and no new XT blocks are being created today.[citation needed]

In January 2016, BIP 101 was removed from Bitcoin XT and replaced with the one-time block size increase to 2 MB present in Bitcoin Classic.[5] In the year following this change, adoption of Bitcoin XT decreased dramatically, with fewer than 30 nodes remaining by January 2017.[6] Later attempts by other codebases to increase the block size to 2 MB including Bitcoin Classic and SegWit2x have also failed.[7]

Miners

Miners that side with Bitcoin XT will produce blocks with a new version number.[8] This indicates to the rest of the network that they support XT.[8] When 75% of the last 1000 blocks are new-version blocks, these miners will automatically abandon Bitcoin and begin mining on a new Bitcoin XT blockchain.[8] This will begin after a waiting period of two weeks in hopes the economy in this time may force anyone who hasn't switched yet to do so.[8]

Users and miners running full Bitcoin nodes will reject the XT blockchain starting with the first block that is larger than one megabyte in size, and thus be unaffected provided it fails to achieve economic consensus.

Users and merchants

If insufficient mining hash power runs XT to reach supermajority then nothing will happen. If enough does, XT users will follow a new blockchain and cease to be using and trading bitcoins.

Controversy

Later in January 2016, frustrated of his proposal being massively outvoted, Mike Hearn made a media stunt declaring on various US national and international press agencies that "Bitcoin has failed". Max Keiser quoted Bram Cohen [9] in describing Hearn's move as "whiny rage quitting" [10] and other members of the community pointed to an extensive account of manipulations http://gettopical.com/bitcoin/e289a9a5189008d994e80666e9038089 (unfortunately today many twitter screenshots are broken).

See Also

References