Bitcoin Cash upgrade adds new functions and maybe lower fees
It's time for miners to upgrade their rigs and nodes as BCH steps things up.
The Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network has increased its block size to 32MB from 8MB. The change to the Bitcoin Cash consensus rules means the network will be able to process transactions through the network faster than before with lower transaction fees. For example, when the network shifted from 2MB to 8MB last August, a single 8MB block was able to process 37,000 transactions at the same time.
For this change, and for the others changes that were part of this upgrade to BCH, new consensus rules needed to come into effect. These came into effect at 1:53EDT, or 3:53pm in Melbourne and Sydney. The change was expected with mining clients receiving upgrades over recent weeks in anticipation of the change.
The move to 32MB truncation blocks means the blockchain should be able to handle increased transaction volumes for quite some time.
In addition to the increase in block size, the Default Data Carrier Size has been boosted to 220 bytes from its previous 80-byte threshold.
Bitcoin.com explains that the increase in this element will enable a script code called OP_Return to be used to enable "meta-protocols" over the blockchain which, in turn, will enable other innovations to take place.
The changes have also enabled the inclusion of “Satoshi OP_Codes" which had previously been disabled. These codes allow operations that can be programmed using the Script language to carry out mathematical operations and string managing techniques. It's anticipated that the codes will facilitate the implementation of new functionality to the Bitcoin Cash network.
An official announcement details which codes will be enabled as well as other information pertaining to the upgrade.
The implementation of the upgrade doesn't seem to have had any effect on BCH's price as it seems to be tracking with the rest of the market.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author holds BTC, EOS, ETH, XLM, ETN, LTC, ADA and XRP.
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