On Tuesday, August 8, the bitcoin network hosted the Segregated Witness (SegWit) protocol, a scaling solution that will lay the foundation for a number of important improvements and accelerate the introduction of innovative solutions in the bitcoin network.
The fixation took place on block 479.708, but until the final activation of the decision there are still two weeks. This should happen after block 481.824 (approximately on August 21).
The delayed activation provided by developers gives bitcoin-services the necessary time to update their software in order to be able to support transactions of a new type.
At one time SegWit, first introduced in late 2015, was one of the reasons for the split in the ranks of the community: some industry representatives felt that this decision did not meet its economic interests. In June 2016, SegWit was implemented in the bitcoin protocol, but to activate it, it required the support of at least 95% of the miners, and for a long time this process was successfully blocked by a number of influential players, for example, the largest mining pool of Antpool.
Parallel to this, there appeared alternative proposals, for example, Bitcoin Classic and Bitcoin Unlimited. All of them carried the threat of separation of bitcoins into separate chains, and only in May 2017 there was one more, as it seemed to many, compromise proposal called SegWit2x. However, it was adopted without much enthusiasm by a significant part of the community, which noted that the decision to implement the SegWit2x was taken in fact behind closed doors by representatives of interested companies.
After that, the development of events took a swift and dramatic turn: there was a proposal for a user-activated softphone (BIP 148 - UASF), which, however, also entailed a threat of hardcore. On August 1, UASF was activated, but the hackle could be avoided thanks to the activation of BIP 91 earlier this week - a solution that is a modified version of SegWit2x, compatible with UASF.
With its activation, the bitcoin network began to reject all blocks that did not signal SegWit support, as a result of which the miners who initially opposed the protocol implementation had no choice but to start supporting it.
Now that SegWit is officially fixed, the miners who have switched to software with protocol support will release the first blocks with updated rules in two weeks. Those who do not support the new technology and do not want to update the software will simply be left without a reward for the block found (more than $ 40,000 at the current exchange rate).
Nevertheless, even now it is difficult to say with certainty how long it will take to distribute the updated code on the network in order to finally integrate changes into exchanges, wallets and other key services of the bitcoin ecosystem. Some of them, however, are already ready for SegWit - in this list are Bitfinex, Kraken, LocalBitcoins, Blockchain, Bitfinex, Coinbase, Exodus, Gemini, Electrum, Samourai and many others.
The main advantages of SegWit can be called network scaling, as well as eliminating the problem of the plasticity of transactions. Also, this solution opens up new opportunities for realizing the ideas of developers, which in the end should help bitcoin to come to changes, the need for which has long been ripe.
