Although some leaders like Slush believe that BIP 91 is a bit rushed, more than 90% of the last 144 blocks have signaled in favor of the proposal.
This is a precursor to Segwit activation, and that there is a critical mass in favor comes as no surprise. However, what is receiving a surprising amount of support is blocks signaling for the “New York Agreement,” a proposal which was born in a meeting which disincluded a lot of important people in the Bitcoin world.
BIP 91 plays a critical role in more than one scaling strategy. It was designed to prevent a chain split from occurring should miners disagree about whether to activate SegWit2x or BIP148, a user-activated soft fork. BIP 91 does not rely on set dates to activate its rules, but instead counts on having a certain amount of hash power. Once 80% of blocks are signaling for a significant period, then blocks which are not from pools which support segregated witness will begin to be rejected. If there are any such pools getting blocks, this will be problematic for them, as it appears that BIP 91 is definitely going full steam ahead.
BIP 91 has the later affect of being compatible with BIP 148, which is important, as there has been significant steam across the network in the direction of users taking a bit more control over the network. Full nodes, as a group, have the ability to enforce rules and play a role almost important as miners in this regard. In the end, network consensus is what is important, and it doesn’t begin or end with miners. BIP 91 enjoying such wide support is also encouraging that most miners are listening to the issues being brought up b the rest of the network.
From here, it seems the scaling debate could have reached a final conclusion long before fall. Should this happen, and the Bitcoin network is thus cruising along with higher capacity, the price will probably enjoy a boost as well. This will raise all ships in the cryptocurrency sea, and we could enjoy a few years to come in terms of prosperity for cryptocurrency markets.
These times are often marked by a few important trends to keep track of: scams, legitimate ideas, and disinformation. These are usually the times that the Satoshi Nakamotos come out of the wood work. It’s a time to be more alert, but also to look for opportunities to expand profit taking in the booming ICO market.