Bitcoin enthusiasts the world over have now reached a monumental crossroads. They can remain loyal to Satoshi’s hand-picked successor, and switch over to Bitcoin XT which will feature new and improved 20MB blocks, or they can stay with the legacy core and risk being left behind.
Last Friday, in a bold move that would have made Nakamoto proud, Bitcoin Chief Scientist Gavin Andreson, announced that he would override the outdated rule of gaining consensus among core developers and hard fork Bitcoin with his friend Mike Hearn. Once these code changes are implemented, people on the old chain risk being left stranded at sea.
The purpose of this process is to prove to any doubters that they’d better start supporting bigger blocks or they’ll be left behind, and to give them a chance to upgrade before that happens.
Upgrading to the Bitcoin XT is as easy as downloading Bitcoin XT and copying your wallet.dat file over to the new directory. It is recommended that users upgrade to the new client before the fork. If you don’t want to get left behind, you can grab your copy of Bitcoin XT from this download link.
Once you install the software, you should see something resembling the above screenshot when navigating to the debug window. As one Bitcointalk user pointed out, both the legacy client and the XT client will work until Gavin implements the hard fork.
Network and blockchain-wise, Core and XT are exactly the same, for now. XT just has different functionality.
Many Satoshi loyalists decided to begin the painless upgrade process to XT today. If you need technical support during the upgrade process, there are plenty of friendly folks ready to provide assistance at BitcoinTalk.org.
When do you think the fork will occur? Will Satoshi be watching the historical event? Log in below using your favorite social network to weigh in on the discussion.
