ViaBTC, the mining pool firmly supporting Bitcoin Unlimited, posted a rather intriguing Tweet earlier today. As it turns out, the CEO of Bitmain, named Jihan Wu, reaffirmed the support for Unlimited. But that is not the shocking part, as he will also help fund the project development and application of Unlimited. All of this will be confirmed during HaoBTC’s anniversary party later today.
It is not uncommon for company CEOs to openly talk about their favorite branch of Bitcoin development. In fact, these opinions should be cherished, as they provide valuable insight as to what other people find important. Bitcoin is all about decentralization and consensus, and every opinion needs to be taken into account whenever possible.
However, it does not often happen that a company CEO publicly states that he will fund development of a non-Bitcoin Core development branch. Bitmain CEO Jihan Wu is planning to personally fund the development of Bitcoin Unlimited, as this branch will continue to compete with Bitcoin Core regarding block size and other changes.
For now, it is unsure what this means for Bitcoin as a protocol. Bitcoin Core and Unlimited can co-exist without too many issues, but there is only one “main fork” at all times. Depending on the support that Segregated Witness receives, it is possible that Bitcoin Unlimited could turn into an alternative Bitcoin, similar to what happened with ETH and ETC.
It is too early to speculate on this announcement and what it means for the future of Bitcoin. One thing is certain: Bitcoin Unlimited developers are looking at many possible changes to the Bitcoin protocol. Changing the block size is just one aspect, and a recent Reddit post alluded to what else might be in store for the future.
Some of these topics will be considered as highly controversial, to say the least. A soft fork, which is effectively what Bitcoin Unlimited proposes, can be used to increase the BTC supply over time. Rather than dealing with 21 million coins, the supply can be extended to an infinite amount of BTC. That would not be the best course of action by any means.
One thing to take away from this announcement is how Bitmain firmly remains in favor of Bitcoin Unlimited. That is not surprising, as their ViaBTC pool is an initiative to support the project development and traction. That said, it appears as if Jihan Wu is on his way to create a new form of Bitcoin that may not be in the best interest of the overall community.
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