Coinbase Integrates Bitcoin Classic

| Updated
by Polina Chernykh · 3 min read
Coinbase Integrates Bitcoin Classic
Photo: Brian Armstrong/Twitter

Coinbase’s Chief Executive has announced they are planning to run Bitcoin Classic nodes.

The San Francisco-based digital currency exchange, Coinbase, has informed that it is going to incorporate Bitcoin Classic nodes. The news was revealed by the company’s CEO Brian Armstrong through his Twitter account.

The recently released Bitcoin Classic version 0.11.2 aimed at raising the block size from 1MB limit to 2MB. Based on Core version 0.11.2, Bitcoin Classic is compatible with its wallet and blockchain files.

In a post, he also urged users to switch to Bitcoin Classics, what will help to boost bitcoin adoption.

Still, some users asked to explain if the company is planning to use Bitcoin Classic as its main running node. Armstrong answered that along with Bitcoin Classic, the company will use other node types.

Besides, he noted that the users’ bitcoins will stay interoperable and valid on all implementations.

The growth of the Bitcoin’s block size is being actively discussed within the bitcoin community over the last few months. While some consider the current limit of the block size should be increased, the others believe it should remain the same or increased a little.

A group of cryptocurrency miners, mining pools, wallets and exchanges, called ‘Bitcoin Roundtable’, has recently issued a letter, which warns about the negative impact the hard fork would have on the bitcoin ecosystem. In addition to high risks, the Classic code could lead to the creation of two incompatible versions of blockchain.

“To avoid potential losses for all bitcoin users, we need to minimize the risks. It is our firm belief that a contentious hard-fork right now would be extremely detrimental to the bitcoin ecosystem,” the letter reads.

Besides, those who are opposed to block size growth are concerned that the expansion will escalate the cost of mining.  Moreover, most power will be controlled by large entities, what makes bitcoin more centralized.

The announcement made by Armstrong is likely to stimulate Coinbase’s users, whose number amounts to more than three million people, to move to Bitcoin Classic. It has already got support from some leading developers and bitcoin mining companies, including Genesis Mining, BitFury and KnCMiner. Since the release of Bitcoin Classic, the amount of nodes increased by 700%.

Meantime, the developers of Classic nodes are going to release a new version, based on Core version 0.12., in the next few weeks. Besides, they plan to increase the speed of block validation and propagation. The features will enable to significantly reduce bandwidth usage, while ensuring proper operations in the network.

Bitcoin News, Cryptocurrency News, News
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