Bitcoin Unlimited Bug Discovered – Price Remains Unaffected
Unlimited Crashes!
In another twist to the scaling debate, almost 70% of Bitcoin Unlimited nodes went offline as news of a software bug was announced.
On Tuesday, Bitcoin Unlimited nodes dropped from near 800 down to 400 following the news of an attack exploiting a software bug. The bug exposed a vulnerability in which nodes could be taken offline by a specific message.
Although the problem was quickly resolved, the incident has left a sour taste in people’s mouths regarding whether or not Bitcoin Unlimited is competent enough to maintain the entire Bitcoin network.
In the grand scheme of things, there are just over 6,000 nodes in the entire Bitcoin network. Prior to the attack, Bitcoin Unlimited had just under 800. If Bitcoin Unlimited had the majority of nodes, the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem would be facing a crisis.
Fortunately, Bitcoin’s price and community aren’t affected by this attack, and it could even be a blessing in disguise for the scaling debate between Bitcoin Core and Unlimited…
Confidence in Unlimited is Lower
Litecoin’s creator, Charlie Lee, expressed his opinion regarding the attack on Twitter.
With the debate regarding how Bitcoin will scale reaching a stalemate, the community may lean towards Core for assurance in Bitcoin’s security and long-term future, as many doubt Unlimited’s technical ability.
In the near future, we could see more nodes signalling for SegWit, which would push Unlimited out. Currently, 26% of the Bitcoin global network is signalling for SegWit. In time, we could see this rise, however, in the last week, the largest mining pool (AntPool) signalled for Bitcoin Unlimited.
Bitcoin celebrity Roger Ver embraced heavy criticism from numerous Bitcoin enthusiasts, as Ver has openly shown support for Unlimited, with talks of hard forking Bitcoin and creating a Bitcoin Unlimited alt coin.
There are also suspicions of Unlimited’s description of vulnerability not adding up mathematically.
Will the Scaling Debate Continue?
Unlimited has gained momentum in the recent months, with a strong increase in node signalling and support by Roger Ver himself. Although the development team isn’t as large as Core’s, their popularity has increased, since pools such as AntPool have signalled for Unlimited.
Another considerable boost for Unlimited is Roger Ver’s own mining pool, named Bitcoin.com, which incentivizes miners to join by giving them an extra 10% in block rewards to encourage more miners to use Bitcoin Unlimited.
Will Unlimited Get Back Their Momentum?
Despite the attack on Unlimited nodes, the trajectory of Bitcoin’s future is still open for debate. Core’s SegWit still needs miners to signal for its activation, and neither side wants to compromise. Eventually, a solution will be found, but the Bitcoin community may think twice before implementing something that could potentially put Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general at risk.