ViaBTC, the mining puddle which has expressed its potent back upward toward Bitcoin Unlimited for a long menstruum of time, ran a poll to produce upward one's request heed whether to activate Segregated Witness (SegWit), the Bitcoin Core evolution team’s transaction malleability laid upward in addition to scaling solution.
The operators of the ViaBTC mining puddle launched a world poll on Twitter on May 6. Over a menstruum of twenty hours, the poll garnered over 5,700 votes in addition to to a greater extent than than 83 per centum of the respondents voted for the activation of SegWit.
ViaBTC’s sudden conclusion to run a world poll inwards regard to the activation of SegWit came equally a surprise to the Bitcoin community considering the mining pool’s history amongst SegWit.
In particular, on Apr 19, the operators of ViaBTC released an article entitled “Why nosotros don’t back upward SegWit” to explicate their seat on the SegWit vs. Bitcoin Unlimited debate.
In the article, ViaBTC wrote:
“SegWit, which is a soft fork solution for malleability, cannot solve the capacity problem. From Core members’ world statements, they didn’t attach necessary importance on this issue. Even if SegWit later on activation tin laissez passer the axe slightly scale upward block size amongst novel transaction formats, it’s withal far behind the need for the evolution of Bitcoin network.”
Were ViaBTC’s claims fair?
In some sense, ViaBTC’s disputation tin laissez passer the axe live on justified equally the Bitcoin Core evolution outlined that the activation of SegWit would virtually probable growth the Bitcoin block size past times roughly 75 percent. By that calculation alone, the activation of SegWit volition virtually probable Pb to an on-chain capacity growth of 0.75 MB, which would ultimately effect inwards the production of 1.75 MB blocks.
In the brusk in addition to mid-term, SegWit volition live on an optimal alternative equally a scaling method. Blockstack’s Ryan Shea stated previously that SegWit is a Swiss knife solution. Although scalability is a byproduct, it provides a necessary infrastructure for ii layer solutions such equally Lightning which could drastically ameliorate Bitcoin scaling.
Not sufficient?
The number ViaBTC in addition to many other Bitcoin Unlimited-supporting mining pools convey over SegWit is that the 75 per centum growth inwards on-chain capacity volition non live on sufficient to supplement the exponential growth of Bitcoin. In other words, the 1.75 MB block size later on the activation of SegWit could live on maximized inside months, a twelvemonth or ii years. It is only non possible to predict the growth inwards block size inwards a linear manner.
Ultimately, ViaBTC ran a world poll in addition to the community is inwards back upward of SegWit. The optimal alternative of ViaBTC would live on to activate SegWit on Bitcoin in addition to pursue other methods or scaling solutions inwards the futurity when SegWit’s 75 per centum on-chain capacity growth turns out to live on non enough.
