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On August 15, 2015 version 0.11A was released to the public.<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><ref>https://github.com/bitcoinxt/bitcoinxt/releases/tag/v0.11A</ref>
On August 15, 2015 version 0.11A was released to the public.<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><ref>https://github.com/bitcoinxt/bitcoinxt/releases/tag/v0.11A</ref>


Bip 101 was reverted<ref>https://github.com/bitcoinxt/bitcoinxt/pull/117</ref> and the 2-MB blocksize bump of [[Bitcoin Classic]] was applied instead.
==Determining the new block size==
Bitcoin XT supports a larger [[Block chain (database)|block]] size.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://bitcoinxt.software/patches.html|title=Patches - BitcoinXT|author=|work=bitcoinxt.software}}</ref> As of version 0.11A the following is implemented to determine the maximum block size.<ref>{{cite web|title=Bitcoin XT at v0.11A - src/chainparams.cpp|url=https://github.com/bitcoinxt/bitcoinxt/blob/v0.11A/src/chainparams.cpp#L56|website=Github - bitcoinxt/bitcoinxt}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Bitcoin XT at v0.11A - src/consensus/params.h|url=https://github.com/bitcoinxt/bitcoinxt/blob/v0.11A/src/consensus/params.h#L39|website=Github - bitcoinxt/bitcoinxt}}</ref>

# If a block is mined before the ''minimum forking date'' of '''11 Jan 2016 00:00:00 UTC''', the maximum stays at '''1MB'''.
# According to mining consensus rules. If less than 750 of the last 1000 blocks (75%) support a bigger block size, the maximum stays at '''1MB'''.
# After a block is encountered that triggers the 75% majority, a grace period of 2 weeks starts, during which the maximum stays at '''1MB'''.
# Unless the above rules restrict size, the maximum block size starts at '''8MB''', doubling approximately '''every 2 years''' for a maximum of '''10 times'''.

This makes the new maximum block size range '''between 8MB and 8192MB''' depending on when the block is mined.

In between each doubling, the maximum block size ''grows linearly''.
For example, at 01 Aug 2021 00:00:00 UTC, the maximum block size will be 57MB (assuming the blockchain has forked towards Bitcoin XT code).

The table below lists the dates when a doubling will occur and what maximum block size is predicted at that time.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Doubled !! Date (UTC) !! Max. block size
|-
| - || 11 Jan 2016 00:00:00 || 8 MB
|-
| 1x || 10 Jan 2018 00:00:00 || 16 MB
|-
| 2x || 10 Jan 2020 00:00:00 || 32 MB
|-
| 3x || 09 Jan 2022 00:00:00 || 64 MB
|-
| 4x || 09 Jan 2024 00:00:00 || 128 MB
|-
| 5x || 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 || 256 MB
|-
| 6x || 08 Jan 2028 00:00:00 || 512 MB
|-
| 7x || 07 Jan 2030 00:00:00 || 1024 MB
|-
| 8x || 07 Jan 2032 00:00:00 || 2048 MB
|-
| 9x || 06 Jan 2034 00:00:00 || 4096 MB
|-
| 10x || 06 Jan 2036 00:00:00 || 8192 MB
|}


== Reception ==
== Reception ==

Revision as of 19:15, 8 March 2016

Bitcoin XT logo

Bitcoin XT is a fork of the bitcoin Core reference client. It achieved significant attention within the bitcoin community in 2015 amid a contentious debate among core developers over increasing the blocksize cap.[1] [2]

History

On June 10, 2014 Mike Hearn published a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP 64), calling for the addition of "a small P2P protocol extension that performs UTXO lookups given a set of outpoints."[3]

On December 27, 2014 Hearn released version 0.10 of the client, with the BIP 64 changes.[4] It was intended to support queries for his Lighthouse crowdfunding platform project.[citation needed]

On June 22, 2015, Gavin Andresen published BIP 101 calling for an increase in the maximum block size. The changes would activate a fork allowing 8 MB blocks (with doublings every two years) once 75% of a stretch of 1000 mined blocks is achieved after the beginning of 2016.[5]

On August 6, 2015 Andresen's BIP101 proposal was merged into the XT codebase.[6]

On August 15, 2015 version 0.11A was released to the public.[7][8]

Bip 101 was reverted[9] and the 2-MB blocksize bump of Bitcoin Classic was applied instead.

Reception

The August 2015 release of XT received widespread media coverage. The Guardian wrote that "bitcoin is facing civil war".[1] Reason wrote that "Bitcoin XT represents a technical and philosophical divergence."[10] Wired wrote that "Bitcoin XT exposes the extremely social — extremely democratic — underpinnings of the open source idea, an approach that makes open source so much more powerful than technology controlled by any one person or organization."[11]

References

[12] [13] [14] [15][16] [17][18] [19]

  1. ^ a b Alex Hern. "Bitcoin's forked: chief scientist launches alternative proposal for the currency". the Guardian. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  2. ^ Grace Caffyn (August 17, 2015). "Bitcoin 'Forked' in Contentious Bid to Address Scaling Concerns". CoinDesk. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  3. ^ "bips/bip-0064.mediawiki at master · bitcoin/bips · GitHub". GitHub.
  4. ^ https://github.com/bitcoinxt/bitcoinxt/releases/tag/v0.10
  5. ^ "bips/bip-0101.mediawiki at master · bitcoin/bips · GitHub". GitHub.
  6. ^ https://github.com/bitcoinxt/bitcoinxt/commit/946e3ba8c7806a66c2b834d3817ff0c986c0811b
  7. ^ Mike Hearn. "Why is Bitcoin forking? — Faith and future". Medium.
  8. ^ https://github.com/bitcoinxt/bitcoinxt/releases/tag/v0.11A
  9. ^ https://github.com/bitcoinxt/bitcoinxt/pull/117
  10. ^ "New Version of Bitcoin Threatens to Split Cryptocurrency Loyalists". Reason magazine. Retrieved 2015-08-25.
  11. ^ Cade Metz (19 August 2015). "The Bitcoin Schism Shows the Genius of Open Source". WIRED.
  12. ^ Paul Vigna (17 August 2015). "BitBeat: Bitcoin's Noisy Size Debate Reaches a Hard Fork". WSJ. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  13. ^ "Bitcoin XT: What Is It and Why Was It Released?". Bloomberg.com. 19 August 2015. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  14. ^ "Bitcoin price crashes amid dispute over Bitcoin XT split". International Business Times UK. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  15. ^ "Developers split over bitcoin's future as rival software emerges". Reuters via Yahoo News. 18 August 2015. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  16. ^ "Bitcoin XT launches as solution to block size debate - Business Insider". Business Insider. 17 August 2015. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  17. ^ "Bitcoin could split in debate over currency's future". BBC News. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  18. ^ "Forking_Hell". The Economist. 22 August 2015.
  19. ^ Olga Kharif (18 August 2015). "Bitcoin Is Having an Identity Crisis". Bloomberg.com.