Company Updates
SegWit and UASF Supported by CoinGate – Company Statement
Last updated: May 1, 2023 2 min read
Vilius Barbaravičius
CoinGate as a Bitcoin payments company now officially supports SegWit and UASF, and does not support Emergent Consensus.
Below are the brief explanations of SegWit, UASF and Emergent Consensus, as well as the reasons why CoinGate supports SegWit and UASF, and does not support Emergent Consensus.
What is SegWit?
SegWit (Segregated Witness, official website: segwit.org) is a proposal on how to scale Bitcoin in the short term, while at the same time fixing transaction malleability, improving the protocol’s security and efficiency, and enabling easier scaling of Bitcoin in the long term.
Why we support SegWit
SegWit:
- is the most comprehensively tested Bitcoin scaling improvement of all that currently exist.
- enables up to 4 times more Bitcoin transactions in a single block.
- fixes Bitcoin transaction malleability problem.
- makes the Bitcoin Lightning Network upgrade much easier to integrate.
- improves security of hardware wallets.
- makes signature-hashing more efficient.
- reduces the ability of miners to use AsicBoost covertly, subsequently making mining a more equal competition between Bitcoin miners.
What is UASF?
UASF (User Activated Soft Fork, official website: uasf.co) is an additional method to activate SegWit, in case MASF (Miner Activated Soft Fork) to activate SegWit fails due to the intentional effort by some miners to block it.
Why we support UASF
- Some miners are actively blocking MASF of SegWit, as it severely hinders their ability to continue using AsicBoost covertly, therefore negating their advantage against other miners. Since MASF requires 95% of miners to signal it, even a meager 5% of miners may hamper the progress of SegWit.
- UASF of SegWit is a method for the economic majority to voice their opinion about SegWit.
What is Emergent Consensus?
Emergent Consensus is a proposal to give the control of the block size limit to users and miners.
Why we do not support Emergent Consensus
Emergent Consensus:
- is a proposal by the developers of Bitcoin Unlimited, a Bitcoin node software which had at least 3 serious bugs exploited this year.
- has not been tested as thoroughly and as rigorously as SegWit.
- gives miners even more power than they currently have, which opposes the idea of decentralization.
- receives active support from the same miners who are purposefully blocking SegWit in order to maintain their advantage against other miners.
The CoinGate Team
Written by:
Vilius Barbaravičius
Vilius is a seasoned copywriter and bitcoin enthusiast specializing in blockchain and cryptocurrency topics. He's been with CoinGate since 2018, writing blogs, social media content, sales materials, newsletters, FAQs, and more. He's relentless in pursuing knowledge and a better understanding of the crypto industry, which helps him create meaningful and engaging content every day.
Vilius is a seasoned copywriter and bitcoin enthusiast specializing in blockchain and cryptocurrency topics. He's been with CoinGate since 2018, writing blogs, social media content, sales materials, newsletters, FAQs, and more. He's relentless in pursuing knowledge and a better understanding of the crypto industry, which helps him create meaningful and engaging content every day.
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