Bitcoin Cash Plans to Increase Its Block Size, Again

Bitcoin cash developers have made "tentative" plans to increase the cryptocurrency's block size again next year.

At least, that's according to a new, rough six to 12-month released yesterday by the bitcoin offshoot's main developer team, Bitcoin ABC. The roadmap notably includes two hard forks – an upgrading method that requires everyone running the software to upgrade – scheduled for May and November of 2018.

Bitcoin cash is a cryptocurrency that emerged earlier this summer out of bitcoin's block size debate.

Effectively blocked by those in the developer community who were reluctant to move too quickly towards a block size increase (arguing it could harm bitcoin's security), a number of bigger block advocates went their own way and created their own cryptocurrency. Most significantly, bitcoin cash boasts a block size parameter limit eight times larger than that of bitcoin.

Bitcoin cash development didn't stop at this initial split, however. Its developers have announced other plans to improve the cryptocurrency, which are added to by the new roadmap.

The announcement goes on to explain:

"We want to make it more reliable, more scalable, with low fees and ready for rapid growth. It should 'just work', without complications or hassles. It should be ready for global adoption by mainstream users, and provide a solid foundation that businesses can rely on."

Bitcoin cash supporters believe increasing the block size is key to accomplishing this, since fees will theoretically rise less quickly as the block size increases.

Later on in the roadmap, the Bitcoin ABC developers lay out other possible features, such as reviving older rules that had been deactivated in the code.

The roadmap is subject to change as the community chimes in, however. Bitcoin ABC is only one of several bitcoin cash software implementations that need to agree and move forward with the change. (Although at least one other implementation, nChain, has given the proposal its blessing.)

The group doesn't plan to release a formal announcement until February 2018.

Rubber bands image via Shutterstock

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Alyssa Hertig

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