[bitcoin-dev] Will there be a freeze of the current protocol version?

[Oliver Egginger <bitcoin@olivere.de>]

Hello,

BitPay seems to support BIP 101:

https://medium.com/@spair/increasing-the-block-size-limit-85ff236fc516

We do not know where this is going. But I suspect that ultimately also
the core client will increase the block size.

Bitcoin is also the subject of research. I think that research is much
to slow (and uncertain) for many companies and users. This is the
reason for XT. Nevertheless, I think further research on the base of the
current protocol version is very important. Thus, I hope that the
current block chain survives. Albeit at a lower level with fewer
users. And expressly not to sabotage necessary changes in the main project.

Let's suppose XT prevails or core is changed within the terms of BIP 101:

Do you think that there are enough people to continue with the old
protocol version? Would developers fork a Bitcoin client for supporting
the old nodes with security updates? Or will there be a compatibility
mode in XT, so that XT behave like an old Bitcoin node? What about
smaller but important projects like picocoin?

- oliver