Bitmain Publishes UASF Contingency Plan
Major mining hardware manufacturer Bitmain releases a controversial contingency plan for responding to UASF (BIP 148) with a competing hard fork.
On June 20, 2017, Bitmain, the dominant Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer and operator of major mining pools, published a blog post outlining a contingency plan for responding to the UASF (BIP 148) scheduled for August 1. The plan, which would become known as the 'UAHF' (User Activated Hard Fork), proposed that if UASF activated and split the chain, Bitmain and supporting miners would create their own competing hard fork with larger block sizes.
This contingency plan was controversial and viewed by many as a threat to split Bitcoin if the UASF proceeded, escalating tensions within the community.
Bitmain's contingency plan revealed the mining hardware manufacturer's significant influence over Bitcoin's technical direction and highlighted the complex incentives at play in the scaling debate. As both a hardware manufacturer and pool operator controlling significant hashpower, Bitmain had substantial economic stakes in how Bitcoin evolved.
The company's opposition to UASF reflected concerns that SegWit's activation without a corresponding block size increase would be unfavorable to their business interests. The publication of the contingency plan was interpreted by UASF supporters as proof that miners were willing to split Bitcoin rather than accept user-driven protocol changes, reinforcing their argument that UASF was necessary to prevent miner capture of Bitcoin's development.The threat of competing forks from both UASF supporters and Bitmain created an extremely tense situation where Bitcoin appeared on the verge of fracturing into multiple competing versions, with unpredictable consequences for users, businesses, and Bitcoin's value.