We’re on a mission to develop Bitcoin Cash into sound money for the world. The next milestone in that mission takes place in November when two new features—ASERT DAA and a coinbase rule—will go live during the network upgrade.
A feature freeze is now in place and release 0.22.0, which contains the new features, is available to download. Remember you need to download and deploy this new release before November 15, 2020 so you can keep your business running smoothly. For more details, click here.
Benefits of the new release
Faster confirmations
Slow confirmations have been an ongoing frustration for Bitcoin Cash users and businesses alike. A new difficulty adjustment algorithm called ASERT helps by reducing the incidence of unexpectedly long block times. As a result, transactions will be confirmed more quickly on average.
More predictable profits
Previously, businesses consistently mining Bitcoin Cash were prone to occasional profit loss because the difficulty adjustment algorithm was flawed. With ASERT, steady miners will see more stable profits and can earn up to 6% more, according to simulations.
Reliable network development
A new coinbase rule will reinvest 8% of the coinbase reward into Bitcoin Cash infrastructure development. That means more technical talent can be hired to maintain and develop the network so it can better support your business moving forward.
More capabilities coming soon
With reliable funding from the new coinbase rule, more features will come to Bitcoin Cash faster. These features will bring exciting new capabilities for both businesses and users. Here’s what we’ll be working on soon:
Removing transaction chain limit bottlenecks
We’ll greatly increase the unconfirmed transaction chain limit so it no longer causes delays for businesses that revolve around fast back-and-forth transactions.
Since less backporting (from the Bitcoin Core repository) can take place once the change is made, maintaining the Bitcoin Cash network will require significantly more work. That’s why reliable funding was essential before this new feature could be implemented.
Why it’s useful
- When somebody spends Bitcoin Cash, they receive any unspent coins back as change. But when they go on to spend that change, there’s a limit to how many transactions they can make with it in any given block.
- The limit is currently 50 consecutive (chained) transactions. By increasing it to hundreds or thousands of transactions—or even removing the limit entirely—users will no longer need to wait for the next block to be confirmed before they can make more transactions with their change.
- So if, for instance, they want to place dozens of on-chain bets with their change in a matter of minutes, they can. For businesses, that means more potential profit. For users, it means a better overall experience without the frustration of delays.
Making the block size limit responsive
Rather than the block size limit being fixed in code, we’ll make it flexible so the network can gradually scale to meet the demands of a global currency.
Why it’s useful
- Provisioning resources to handle an unnecessarily large block size limit is expensive. But, as more users join the Bitcoin Cash network over time, the block size limit will need to grow to efficiently process increasing numbers of transactions.
- By adding a block size limit that responds to market demand, the block size limit can grow as needed. The algorithm behind the responsive limit will look at historical data and set the block size limit accordingly.
- The responsive block size system will need to be carefully engineered to deter spam transactions from easily filling up blocks. This will prevent delays and keep fees low for genuine users’ transactions.
Confirming transactions securely in seconds
We’ll implement pre-consensus to Bitcoin Cash so transactions can be agreed upon by nodes almost instantly, before being confirmed on the blockchain itself.
Why it’s useful
- For Bitcoin Cash to be used in commerce, transactions need to be reliable right away. Otherwise, merchants risk losing out if they fall victim to a double-spend attack (where somebody tries to spend the same coins twice).
- By adding pre-consensus to the network, transactions can be considered final within seconds. Rather than waiting on confirmations, Avalanche lets nodes communicate with one another in real-time about which transactions they recognize.
- The result is added security for merchants who accept Bitcoin Cash, while users will benefit from knowing their transactions are going to appear in the next block before that block has even been mined.
Get support from our team
The upcoming infrastructure fund, brought about by the new coinbase rule in our latest release, means Bitcoin Cash can become sound money for the world.
We’re fully committed to implementing a structure that provides full accountability and transparency for the management of the fund. More details will be announced about that structure soon.
In the meantime, we’re here to help. Whether you’re unsure how to upgrade your node software, have questions, or need any other technical support, you can get help by raising a ticket here.