It appears the Bitcoin Core developers have released a new software client that introduces an interesting twist. Up until now, running Bitcoin Core made SegWit mandatory for all miners. The community responded somewhat negatively to this change and the developers listened. An updated client, number 0.14.1, makes SegWit optional. An interesting choice, to say the least.
Updated Bitcoin Core Client Offers Interesting Changes
It is always good to see the Bitcoin Core developers listen to feedback from the community. After all, developers try to do what is best for bitcoin, but they are not the only ones who can provide input. Client 0.14.0 was not all that well received since it made SegWit mandatory for miners, a change not everyone appreciated all that much. Even though this solution is still the main focus of Bitcoin Core developers right now, they have taken the community’s comments to heart.
Over the weekend, Bitcoin Core 0.14.1 was released, which includes a few bug fixes and other minor changes to the client code. However, there is one major change a lot of people seemingly have overlooked. The developers made a change to the “getblocktemplate” – the protocol used by miners – to no longer force miners to opt-in to SegWit. Not everyone who runs the Core client for mining wants to support Segregated Witness, and people should always be given that free choice.
As part of the updated Bitcoin Core 0.14.1 client, miners can now opt-in to SegWit, or just run the client without doing so. This change is now available to anyone who owns the required mining hardware to help secure the bitcoin network. Mining pools will be able to implement this change as well, albeit it may take a few days until we see this change propagate on the network.
To be more specific, this change means the client will support non-SegWit clients even when the scaling solution activates. All segwit transactions will be excluded from the clients who are not opting for this scaling solution at that time. Moreover, it gives non-segwit miners peace of mind, as they can continue to act without having to make any changes. They will remain part of the Bitcoin Core chain, yet simply not bother with SegWit transactions. All things considered, a very interesting decision.
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