Reading "The Blocksize War" by Jonathan Bier.
I have no idea how Bitcoin is still around.
Thread 🧵?!?
Discussion
Chapter 1: First Strike
-Mike Hearn and Gavin Andresen throw their weight behind Bitcoin XT proposal in 2015
-Bitcoin XT increases blocks to 8 MB and then doubles every two years until 2036 landing around a final block size limit of 8,000 MB (imagine all the possible inscriptions!)
-CEOs of BitPay, Blockchain.info, Circle, Kncminer, itBit, Bitnet, Xapo and BitGo author a letter of support for Bitcoin XT
-Andresen claims Satoshi handed off the role of leader of Bitcoin project in 2011
-Andresen considered "main guy" in these early years by many
-arguments between "small blockers" and "larger blockers" happening primarily on BitcoinTalk forum and Bitcoin subreddit, /r/Bitcoin
-Theymos (Michael Marquardt) controlled both of these forums and starts to moderate with a heavier hand due to convos getting clogged up by continued larger blocks posts
-bans talk of Bitcoin XT after release because it isn't consensus Bitcoin
Chapter 5: SegWit
-At Scaling Bitcoin Hong Kong segregated witness is talked about. SegWit is a way of increasing blocksize without being incompatible (softfork).
-Luke Dashjr figures out hack to make SegWit possible.
-seems like win win but nobody understands it which causes more confusion and division between small and large blockers
-SegWit opens the door for layer-two transaction network, lightning âš¡âš¡âš¡
-November 2016 SegWit is released in Bitcoin Core
-95% of blocks had to signal support to activate softfork
Ch. 7: Bitcoin Classic
-Armstrong comes out in support of larger blocks (there seems to be a trend here).
-bitcoin.org removes Coinbase as a suggested wallet on it's website (this is only 6 years ago look at Coinbase now)
-Hearn rage quits Bitcoin and supposedly sells all his coins appearing to cause a 10 percent drop in price
Ch. 8: Hong Kong Roundtable
-February 20, 2016 a meeting happens between miners and developers in Hong Kong
-some in attendance: Adam Back, Cory Fields, Johnson Lau, Luke Dashjr, Matt Corallo, and Peter Todd
-Bitmain co-founders, Jihan Wu and Micree Zhan. Jihan states they will support Classic and demands Core do a fork to still be considered Bitcoin. Says miners will do a 2 MB hardfork
-developers claim SegWit fixes this. Distrust ensues.
-All in attendance agree to draft a text on next steps forward. This riles up those not in attendance in the States and has a political, back room closed door feeling.
-Samson Mow in attached and helps draft text.
-this goes well in to the night and by 5am they agree on a text almost out of exhaustion.
-a picture is taken off all hands reaching towards text to signal consensus (excluding Back and Corolla still reviewing the text)
-text says miners will commit to Core, developers will commit to hardfork improvements after SegWit (if strong community support which seems to be an out that the large blockers glazed over)
-the agreement did not fix anything as each side interpreted it in a way that they wanted
-the agreement is considered a blunder by many but it did stop the momentum of Bitcoin Classic
Ch. 9: Faketoshi
-May 2, 2016, Gavin blogs that he believes Craig Steven Wright is Satoshi
-Gavin's commit access to Core revoked
-Craig Wright releases blogpost of evidence which makes things more confusing because it is not very clear.
-Craig is welcomed by larger block community
-ultimately this turns into a blow for larger blockers as CSW's credibility is questioned.
Ch. 10: The DAO
-summer of 2016 the Decentralized Autonomous Organization gains attention. Smart contact built on ETH fancied add an autonomous investment fund.
-DAO raises over 150 mil then gets hacked
Eventually ETH hardforks to recover funds (creating ETH Classic)
-this split gives lesson on what could happen to Bitcoin if hardforked.
Ch. 11: Scaling III - Milan
-anyone have a "Hard Fork Cafe" shirt?
-November 1, 2016, Bitcoin Core 0.13.1 is released which includes activation parameters for SegWit softfork