The Bitcoin Cash Node (BCHN) project has announced a major release version 25.0.0. It delivers four Cash Improvement Proposals (CHIP) that are consensus changes and a number of other enhancements, bugfixes and performance improvements on the main network (mainnet).
CHIP-2021-01 Restrict Transaction Version (v1.0)
CHIP-2021-01 Minimum Transaction Size (v0.4)
CHIP-2022-02 CashTokens (v2.2.1)
CHIP-2022-05 P2SH32 (v1.5.1)
The network upgrade is expected to take place once the median time past (MTP) [1] of the most recent 11 blocks is greater than or equal to UNIX timestamp 1684152000 (15th May 2023 at 12:00:00 UTC / 16:00:00 GST).
Announcement | Bitcoin Cash Node
Bitcoin Cash Network Upgrade Specification
Evaluation Process
MidChains has:
Evaluated what is changing?
Analysed the impact of the changes.
What is Changing?
The proposed upgrade to the Bitcoin Cash peer-to-peer electronic cash system would enhance the enforcement of acceptable transaction version field values. The current network relay rule would be replaced with a consensus rule to ensure compliance with the allowed transaction version field values. By including this in the consensus specification, it would be easier to track future Bitcoin Cash consensus specification upgrades. This would also facilitate future hard-fork upgrades that are non-breaking and backwards-compatible for non-node software.
The proposed update to the rule for minimum transaction sizes aims to reduce the burden on library and mining software while ensuring that users of Simplified Payment Verification (SPV) nodes are protected from potential attacks. The current consensus minimum transaction size of 100 bytes would be lowered to a new minimum size of 65 bytes. This new minimum size would apply to both coinbase and non-coinbase transactions in a uniform manner, similar to the previous 100-byte minimum size.
This proposal aims to enable the creation and use of tokenized assets on the Bitcoin Cash network. It proposes a set of new opcodes and transaction types that can be used to issue and transfer tokens on the network, which can have various use cases such as creating loyalty points, digital art or other assets (two new primitives on Bitcoin Cash: fungible tokens and non-fungible tokens).
This proposal aims to improve the security and functionality of Pay-to-Script-Hash (P2SH) transactions on the Bitcoin Cash network. It proposes changing the current P2SH address format from 20 bytes to 32 bytes to increase the number of possible address combinations, making the address scheme more secure and flexible.
Release instruction – Release 25.0.0 · bitcoin-cash-node/bitcoin-cash-node · GitHub
Impact Analysis
MidChains will support the Bitcoin Cash network upgrade. Node operators are required to upgrade, while other application users are not required to upgrade. No action is required by clients who hold BCH and clients’ funds will not be impacted by this upgrade. The Bitcoin Cash network upgrade is not noted to be contentious.
Impact on Client Funds: No impact to clients' funds post network upgrade.
Regulatory implications: None.
Maturity / Market Capitalization: None.
Security and Operations: Enhanced security.
Traceability / Monitoring: None.
Exchange Connectivity and Demand: No impact.
Type of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT): No impact.
Innovation and /Efficiency: Improved network performance and efficiency.
Upgrade Preparation
Node operators are required to upgrade nodes before 15th May 2023. No action is required by clients who hold BCH.