Bitcoin SV Genesis hard fork implementation plan announced

The Bitcoin SV Genesis Hard Fork is fast approaching, scheduled for February 4, 2020. To ensure everything goes smoothly for the return to its original protocol, the Bitcoin SV Node Team has announced a testing and implementation plan for all BSV services to follow leading up to the big date.

Outlined thoroughly at their dedicated technical support page, the BSV Node Team recommends all users running the BSV Node software follow the steps they’ve outlined as early as possible this month. That includes those running an application, as well as operators of mining nodes, blockchain listeners, wallets, exchanges, and other instances.

To prepare for the big date, they’ve developed two public testnets: Genesis Testnet (GT) is the first and Genesis Reset (GR) is the second. GT will be set to post-Genesis activation, running on the testnet starting in December 2019 and activating on the mainnet on February 4, 2020. GR will have a 48-hour reset cycle starting 24 hours before activation, activating Genesis, and then resetting after 24 hours again. More technical details about both testnets along with a support channel where you can reach members of the Bitcoin SV Node Team can be found on their support page.

The beta test software was run through rigorous QA testing before being released. While well tested, the beta software should only be run on the GT, GR or BSV Scaling Test Network (STN), and should not be used on the mainnet. The STN will activate Genesis on January 21, 2020, at block height 14896.

The team stated more details will be coming soon, and a second phase of security auditing will be implemented in December. They once again encourage checking in on their support page for updates, or by joining their Telegram group.

Just to be on the safe side, no matter how this test goes in December, the team will not declare the beta release stable before January 1, 2020. Should any problems arise, they expect to have it stable by the second week of January, but they expect everything should be fine much earlier than that. When this happens, the team will inform everyone to upgrade all nodes on the mainnet to prepare for the February 4 Genesis upgrade.

They also note that the exact hour of the Genesis upgrade is still yet to be determined, as it will largely depend on how quickly the network finds blocks. They’ll provide updates as soon as they have them.

The Genesis Hard Fork is a monumental step in the history of Bitcoin, and will see BSV returned as close as possible to the original protocol as envisioned by Satoshi Nakamoto. This critical date will allow the Bitcoin SV protocol to have stability and scale massively as Satoshi always wanted.

To learn more visit the dedicated Genesis Hard Fork Support Page today.