nChain successfully held a workshop with Bitcoin Unlimited and announced support for Bitcoin scaling

LONDON, July 28, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- nChain, the leading blockchain research and development organization, has announced that it has held a previously announced workshop with the Bitcoin Unlimited (BU) team to support Bitcoin's scaling initiatives. The workshop was successfully concluded on July 24-25 in Vancouver, Canada, where the two parties successfully explored ways to collaborate on increasing block capacity and achieving large-scale on-chain scaling for the Bitcoin network.

As a key first step in the collaboration, nChain will help optimize the BU client software and provide a "certified" version. Unlike the Bitcoin Core open source client software, BU's client software is designed for larger blocks, providing stronger support for on-chain expansion. nChain will conduct rigorous software testing and quality certification, and provide complete documentation and strong software technical support to upgrade the BU client software to a new generation of "certified" versions. The new version is particularly valuable to Bitcoin miners, trading platform operators and merchants. At the same time, BU will continue to provide its own version of client software, including test versions and production code, to meet the needs of mainstream consumers such as small businesses and individual users.

nChain CEO Stefan Matthews said:

“nChain is confident in BU and its code. nChain ’s expertise will be a great addition to BU , and we are confident that the ‘ certified ’ version of the BU client software will better meet the needs of enterprise users, especially miners. nChain intends to make this ‘ certified ’ version freely available to the market, contributing to a faster and more powerful Bitcoin network. We believe that the huge increase in the value of Bitcoin will benefit everyone. ”

BU President Andrew Clifford said:

“ The Vancouver workshop was a great experience for us to exchange ideas with nChain on how to improve the BU code . We are confident that together, nChain and our development team will make the BU platform more powerful and more cost-effective for both large and small users. The Vancouver workshop further strengthened the interest of both BU and nChain in working together, laying a solid foundation for continued information exchange and partnership to jointly support big blocks and Bitcoin network expansion. ”

nChain also used the workshop to respond to the latest developments in the Bitcoin scaling controversy. The recently announced hard fork initiated by Bitcoin Cash users, which took effect on August 1, 2017, could lead to a new version of Bitcoin. Despite much speculation on online forums and social media, neither nChain nor our Chief Scientist Dr. Craig Wright are involved or involved in Bitcoin Cash.

Dr. Wright added:

“ I understand why I am considered a radical in the Bitcoin world and why there are so many comments about me on the Internet and social media, but most of the online posts are wrong. Some of the false comments include that I am the mastermind behind the introduction of Bitcoin Cash , which I am not. Nevertheless, I agree with the original intention and efforts of my peers who advocate Bitcoin Cash to achieve truly decentralized peer-to-peer electronic cash and improve transaction capabilities . ”

Stefan Matthews points out:

“nChain is not the promoter of Bitcoin Cash . However, we share the vision of Bitcoin Cash to bring low- fee and reliable sound money to the world and remove barriers to its growth, global adoption and decentralization. We wish Bitcoin Cash and its creators every success. ”

At the BU workshop in Vancouver, nChain also had the opportunity to discuss the Segregated Witness 2x (SegWit 2x) concession agreement. nChain supports SegWit 2x Phase 2 - which will increase the block size to 2MB in mid-November 2017. nChain supports larger blocks to achieve on-chain scaling, but believes that 2MB is just the beginning of a continued increase in block size to solve the capacity issues of the Bitcoin network. nChain will continue to demonstrate the opportunities and benefits of using larger blocks to achieve further on-chain scaling through research and active communication.

Stefan Matthews also stated that there will be opportunities for further cooperation with BU and other Bitcoin network participants in the future.

“ We anticipate that nChain can work with BU on many fronts to expand the Bitcoin network to increase transaction speeds and add enterprise-grade processing capabilities. We also look forward to collaborating with other participants in the Bitcoin ecosystem and invite those interested in working with nChain to contact us. Through industry collaboration, we can solidify Bitcoin’s dominance among virtual currencies and truly maximize Bitcoin’s value. ”

In addition to supporting BU, nChain is researching and developing tools, code, and applications to support the growth of blockchains around the world. These include a software development tool to help programmers develop applications for the Bitcoin blockchain, a solution to Bitcoin blockchain scaling, new methods to improve security, an on-chain programming language for smart contracts, and a distributed trading platform using autonomous agents.