What Is FlexTrans?

There are a ton of interesting discussions taking place in the bitcoin industry at any given moment. One of the many bitcoin scaling solutions goes by the name of FlexTrans, also known as Flexible Transactions. This approach has quite a few advantages, and it is good to have multiple scaling solutions to make bitcoin more robust moving forward.

FlexTrans Is An Intriguing Concept

Although Bitcoin Classic is not the most popular bitcoin scaling solution as of right now, its developers have some interesting ideas. FlexTrans, or Flexible Transactions, is an alternative solution to strengthen the bitcoin protocol moving forward. As one would expect, solving the malleability issue is of the utmost importance where bitcoin is concerned. Segregated Witness is designed to address this problem and FlexTrans has followed that train of thought.

However, there are quite a few key differences that may make people think twice about FlexTrans in the future. First of all, this scaling solution is designed to keep things simple, and even results in actively making transactions smaller. Rather than looking for a larger block size, smaller transactions are a more than viable approach to make bitcoin scale moving forward.

Additionally, the FlexTrans solution has – allegedly – a better chance at successfully providing a double-spend proof. While SegWit will provide some improvements to counter double-spend attacks, FlexTrans aims to remove double-spends altogether moving forward  What is rather peculiar is how FlexTrans will still support the Lightning Network – making it a viable alternative rather than a “competitor” – whereas some other bitcoin scaling solutions are incompatible with that protocol.

There is more to take into account, though. SegWit’s main selling point, according to most people, is how it lays the foundation for the Lightning Network. Even though it provides a block size increase and fixes a lot of problems on the side, the BitcoiN Classic teams the solution is inadequate to accommodate the network’s needs. FlexTrans, on the other hand, takes the route of being a separate solution which can easily be combined with any capacity increase.

From a convenience point of view, FlexTrans provides some advantages as well. Everyone is well aware of how SegWit activation will force all bitcoin users to upgrade their node and/or wallet software. FlexTrans proposes a future block date to automatically activate, giving people months of time to prepare for these changes.Moreover, the FlexTrans protocol update warns users if they failed to upgrade their client before the activation date. Until they do, they will have “no service”, which also ensures no funds will be lost.

In the end, it is not hard to see FLexTrans and SegWit aim to solve the same problems, even though they take slightly different approaches to doing so. Moreover, FlexTrans has a lower “cost” compared to SegWit, and provides far more convenience when it comes to making users upgrade their clients. All things considered, it is a good solution, even though it remains an alternative branch of development. SegWit enjoys support from the economic majority, which makes it a more favorable solution compared to FlexTrans.

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