on the crypto
According to forecasts, in the year 2106, buy Bitcoins it will suddenly stop working if it continues to run on the code that its network is running today. The good news is that the detected bug is easy to fix.
This is an issue that Bitcoin developers have known for years, at least since 2012, according to Bitcoin Core contributor and Blockstream co-founder Pieter Wuille. For some developers, the Bitcoin bug potentially underscores the limitations of Bitcoin's decentralization, as the community will have to come together to fix it.
The Bug
The bug is simple. Bitcoin blocks are the containers within which transactions are stored. Each Bitcoin block has a number that keeps track of how many blocks come before it.
But due to a limitation that revolves around how block height numbers are stored, Bitcoin will run out of block numbers after 5101541. In other words, about 86 years into the future, it will be impossible to produce new blocks.
Hard Fork
The change requires what is known as a "hard fork," the most challenging method of making a change to a blockchain. Hard forks are complicated as they are not backward compatible, requiring anyone using a Bitcoin node or miner to update their software.
Those who don't will be left behind with the old version of Bitcoin incapable of any business. Although some blockchains, such as Ethereum, regularly hard forks, this path is not so obvious to apply.
The last time a Bitcoin hard fork was attempted, in 2017, a fierce debate arose. Many saw it as an attempt to force the community to update, which is not exactly in keeping with Bitcoin's decentralization ethic.
Because of this precedent, when many people in Bitcoin hear "hard fork", they think of a centralized power that seeks to enforce change. However, this bug-fix hard fork is in stark contrast to Bitcoin's more famous hard fork attempt.
The community and developers will most likely agree that this is a change that needs to be made. After all, anyone who chooses not to update their software will end up running a dead Bitcoin chain.
'Ossification' of the protocol
Gustavo J. Flores, head of the Product and Research Department of the Bitcoin tech startup Veriphi, said the Bitcoin bug brings to light a limit to Bitcoin's "protocol ossification". Taking up the idea of soft cartilage hardening in bone over time, the ossification of the protocol means that Bitcoin will become more difficult to modify as it matures.
The reason many Bitcoin technologists think ossification is a good quality is because it is a sign that the system is indeed decentralized as the community wants it to be. "However, this bug makes it desirable to be able to coordinate a hard fork to fix it, since we all want Bitcoin to be able to survive that deadline," Flores said.
