Paul Sztorc, the developer behind the Drivechain proposal and BIP 300, introduced the change in an Aug. 7 replace. ECX is a brand new blockchain that copies Bitcoin’s full transaction historical past at a set block top, crediting practically each Bitcoin holder (minus a few of Satoshi’s cash) with an equal quantity of ECX. Bitcoin’s personal community will not be altered by the method.
Sztorc Breaks the Launch Into Three Steps
Below the plan, an “alpha” model of ECX prompts Aug. 23 at block 963648. A “beta” model follows Sept. 20 at block 967,680. The everlasting, full launch is about for Oct. 31 at block 973728.
“The Alpha and Beta launches will (ideally) resemble the total launch, in each method attainable,” Sztorc wrote on Friday. Cash collected in the course of the alpha and beta phases can later be burned and redeemed for actual ECX as soon as the everlasting chain goes reside on Oct. 31.
Why Wait? Sztorc Factors to Software program Danger and Worth Discovery
Sztorc listed a number of causes for spacing out the launch. Amongst them: giving the challenge time to work by means of what he referred to as “LLM bug chaos,” letting the market choose an early value for ECX earlier than the community’s mining issue locks in, and giving merchants one thing to check and speculate on forward of the ultimate launch.
He additionally framed the staged strategy as a security internet. “Offers us cowl if there’s some type of massive downside or catastrophe,” he wrote, including that the format features as a reside demonstration for individuals asking whether or not the brand new chain will work as supposed. The transfer comes at a time the place crypto builders have been scrambling to guard tasks from bugs found quicker by synthetic intelligence (AI) fashions.
Replay Safety Stays Elective, and Sztorc Warns Customers
One element carries over from the unique plan: replay safety, the mechanism that retains a transaction from executing on each the Bitcoin and ECX chains directly, stays opt-in somewhat than computerized. Official ECX pockets software program will apply the safety and alert customers earlier than a transaction goes by means of.
Sztorc was fairly direct about what occurs to anybody who ignores that warning. “Should you ignore us, we are going to replay your txns,” he wrote, which means ECX will observe a person’s outgoing Bitcoin to its new proprietor except the break up is finished deliberately.
Full Launch Lands on a Symbolic Date
The Oct. 31 mainnet date will not be arbitrary. It falls on Halloween, precisely on the 18th anniversary of the publication of Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin white paper, the doc that first described Bitcoin’s design in 2008.
What Comes Subsequent
Sztorc gave holders and exchanges a selected runway. “You will have 12 weeks to observe,” he wrote, referring to the stretch between the Aug. 23 alpha and the Oct. 31 full launch.
Between every now and then, bitcoin holders and exchanges face a set of sensible choices: whether or not to run the official pockets software program to separate their BTC and ECX holdings, how exchanges plan to credit score clients with the brand new asset, and the way the community’s mining issue behaves as soon as the alpha and beta phases start producing actual exercise. Every of the three block heights, 963648 in August, 967680 in September and 973728 in October, will mark the following checkpoints to observe.
Sztorc’s announcement comes as Bitcoin faces one other fork of a special shade, BIP-110, that’s estimated to happen in some unspecified time in the future at this time.
