Why Vitalik Buterin and Jeff Garzik oppose soft forks?

Bitcoin Core developer and Bloq co-founder Jeff Garzik has voiced his opposition to soft forks, or the idea of ​​a small group of developers acting as the authority to decide major economic changes to the Bitcoin network.

The purpose of soft forks is compatibility, so that old version nodes can recognize new blocks and verify them. Soft forks require most miners to update network rules, otherwise they will face the risk of reduced security.

Centralization

The process of submitting and implementing soft forks presents a centralization problem. When a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal is submitted to a group of Core developers, these developers will decide whether to implement a soft fork to integrate it into the Bitcoin network based on whether the proposal will gain consensus from the majority. This group of Core developers is led by BIP editor Greg Maxwell.

In his State of Bitcoin report during the OnChain Extended Conference on August 30, Garzik criticized the SegWit scheme for the same reason, saying that SegWit is dominated by a small technical elite.

“From the perspective of an average user, a soft fork should not be considered as an option because the entire network will be stuck with the new consensus rules,” Garzik said.

He further emphasized that if a soft fork is controversial, it is difficult to reverse and challenge it. "A controversial soft fork is difficult to reverse and challenge. If not every node is updated, the soft fork will face the risk of reduced security." He said.

Garzik believes that it sets a negative precedent for Bitcoin that a small group of people on the network can leverage millions of users to create a major economic change, and that this is done through centralized operations.

“The entire network follows the decisions made by this small group of people, and if you want to make an economic change, but the change must be approved by this small group of people, then you are creating an organization that resists Bitcoin, such as the Federal Reserve, the Federal Market Committee,” Garzik said.

Political issues

Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd and Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin recently debated similar issues, with Todd using Zcash as an example, saying that the privacy-focused currency is competing with Bitcoin through a soft fork instead of developing an entirely separate currency.

In response to Todd’s soft fork proposal, Buterin argued that the actual creation is more important than a proposal approved by a few.

In theory, a soft fork requires consensus from the main Core developers, but in essence it is still a major change to the Bitcoin network approved by a minority of members.

Original link: Reinventing the Fed: Why Jeff Garzik, Vitalik Buterin Are Against Soft Forks

Original author: Joseph Young

Media source: Cointelegraph

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