bitcoin ABC
Bitcoin Cash bifurcates again on May 15, 2018, and protocol consensus rules will change in the future. The fork was expected when the leading Bitcoin ABC developer, Amaury Séchet, announced intentions to fork a few months ago. In addition, Séchet explained that it would be easier to fork after the new year and detailed some of the reasons why the fork would be made. Now, this week, the ABC development team has released version 0.17.0 that contains the code to change the consensus rules of the Bitcoin Cash network.
The scheduled activation time will be May 15, but there is no specific block height for this hard fork. Like the birth of the BCH, and the last fork in November, the consensus rules will change according to the "Median Time Past" (MTP) method. Then, on Tuesday, May 15 at 12:00:00 UTC, 2018 when the MTP is carried out with the 11 most recent blocks equal to or greater than 1,526,400,000, the next block will activate the hard fork.
Increase in block size of 32 megabytes and additions of operating code
The development team explains that anyone running an ABC node should immediately upgrade to version 0.17.0 or other compatible software. As far as other customers are concerned, the ABC developers claim that they can not speak on behalf of these other implementation teams, but ABC has communicated with them. "Bitcoin ABC is currently testing both the new rules and their activation: a testnet should be available soon," explains Bitcoin ABC.
The latest announcement also details the important changes within the new software: "The most notable change is the increase in the maximum block size to 32 MB. Several bitcoin script operation codes (operation codes) are also added or reactivated.
No fear of hard fork
The developers also detail that they are in the midst of conversations with the major exchange and wallet providers regarding the May 15 update. The team emphasizes that the community can help by contacting infrastructure providers to make the process more fluid. The last update of the Bitcoin Cash network in November of 2017 did not present complications, and the changes in the consensus of the Adjustment of Algorithms of Difficulties (DAA) have kept constant the difficulty of the mining. It is safe to say that the BCH community, in general, does not seem to fear hard forks. The proponents expect an increase in block size of 32 MB and additions of operating code that could bring Ethereum-like characteristics to the BCH network.