Bitcoin Classic has been available for download on its website and by its GitHub source. The popular hard fork proposal coined “Classic” has been gaining some steam since its official announcement a few weeks ago. The plan is to perform a hard fork to a 2 MB block size increase, which Classic developers say is a change demanded by users. Creators and supporters of the method have bolstered its use so the community can “gracefully upgrade the Bitcoin network’s capacity together.”
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We are happy to announce the release of our second beta version. This release includes binaries, which can be downloaded here. This is a test release, not intended for mining.
The block size debate has been a lengthy process, but it takes time for an open source community to come to a decision. Many ideas, concepts and proposals have come into the discussion regarding scaling the Bitcoin code. Not all ideas are the same and with this kind of community coming to “consensus is hard” and this was a point noted by Gavin Andresen speaking about the subject at MIT last year. Gavin has recently stated that he is for a 2 MB bump in the block size after the past year, during which we saw many different ideas rise to the surface. In contrast to Andresen’s and others’ opinions that the protocol should increase in this manner, there are some against an increase or one implemented with a hard fork.
Those supporting the Classic version have been asking those who don’t know about it to research the change and possibly download the beta client. Currently the Classic 0.11.2.cl1 Beta 2 release is a test and not intended for mining. The project is being developed by Jonathan Toomim, Gavin Andresen, Ahmed Bodiwala, Jeff Garzik, and Peter Rizun.
Businesses within the Bitcoin industry such as Coinbase, BitStamp, Xapo, Foldapp, Bread Wallet, Vaultoro, Lamassu and many more support the implementation. The node count according to Coin Dance shows that Classic is growing in users as the number of nodes increased to 177 since the beta two release.
With a full implementation, Classic will initiate the one-time increase from 1 MB to 2 MB with “limits on signature operations and hashing.” For more information on the block size increase BIP, it is available here for those to research. Ports will be available for master and 0.11.2 so miners and companies can upgrade. “In the future Bitcoin Classic will continue to release updates that are in line with Satoshi’s white paper & vision, and are agreed upon by the community,” said the Developers.
Bitcoin.com recommends people research the Classic implementation and give the protocol a try. Classic will also be available via Bitcoin.com’s Choose Your Wallet section. As time progresses, it may be the code change everyone agrees upon.
Currently, Core nodes are still the highest count in the network, and Bitcoin Unlimited nodes are running as well. In the end, one chain will take the lead and continue to be the longest and most preferred network ever created. In the meantime let’s hope that it is a healthy discussion, and without censorship.
What do you think about Bitcoin Classic? Let us know in the comments below.
Images courtesy of Pixbay, Graphs from the subreddits /r/bitcoin, Coin Dance and /r/btc
