Roughnecks
npub1ehrl...qsdz
110th Mining Division
Roughneck Chronicles 3: The Fork Turning
Roughnecks
“What do you despise? By this you are truly known.” -Muad’Dib
All parties stand to lose in a chain split. Miners just want to keep mining valid blocks. Nodes don’t want to keep track of two chains. Merchants and users don’t want to wait for a confirmation on two chains. For these and other reasons we think a chain split is unlikely. But unlikely is not the same as impossible. Have a plan just in case. You’ve asked us what to do in a chain split. Here’s our answer. We’ve broken our answer up into four sections depending on your perspective. From here on we will refer to the two hypothetical chains as the VC chain and the pleb chain for lack of better naming convention.
Alice is in favor of BIP110
1. You’re in favor of BIP110 (Alice)
Alice is a pleb or business running a BIP110 node transacting on-chain during a chain split. Her transaction already has a confirmation on the VC chain but for her to consider it a valid confirmation, it needs to be confirmed on the pleb chain. In this scenario Alice will likely want to RBF (replace-by-fee) or CPFP (child-pays-for-parent) to get that confirmation. Doing so increases the likelihood that her transaction will be included in the next pleb chain block. This also sends a signal to miners not mining on the pleb chain that there is high demand for pleb chain blocks and greedy miners will start mining those blocks to get the high transaction fees.
Bob is neutral on BIP110
2. You’re neutral on BIP110 (Bob)
Bob couldn’t give two shits about BIP110 but there is a chain split going on. He can try to ignore it or wait it out until the split resolves itself. But let’s say that’s not an option for him. Bob's an exchange or a business that cannot shut down for weeks or even days. Or he has a time-sensitive payment that needs to confirm. An exchange or other business doesn’t want to be left holding the bag for VC chain coins that get re-orged out of existence. Bob's got a confirmation on the VC chain but for some extra security he'd like a confirmation on the pleb chain too. Bob will likely want to RBF (replace-by-fee) or CPFP (child-pays-for-parent) to get that confirmation. Doing so increases the likelihood that his transaction will be included in the next pleb chain block. This also sends a signal to miners not mining on the pleb chain that there is high demand for pleb chain blocks and greedy miners will start mining those blocks to get the high transaction fees.
Chuck hates BIP110
3. You’re opposed to BIP110 (Chuck)
Chuck hates this stupid BIP110 thing. He wants to split his coins and sell the pleb chain coins while hanging on to the VC chain coins. Let us make it abundantly clear to Chuck that we don’t think it’s wise to try to split your coins and dump the pleb chain coins. Doing so may only have the effect of dumping your Bitcoin holdings for fiat, or worse, ending up with only VC chain coins that get re-orged out of existence. But we understand that Chuck isn’t going to heed this warning and he's going to chase “free money”. Chuck may send a transaction with a large OP_RETURN that is only valid on the VC chain (note that a miner can mine large OP_RETURNS while signaling for BIP110, so a large OP_RETURN won’t automatically split his coins until activation). But Chuck cannot split his coins nor dump the pleb chain coins without confirmations on the pleb chain. Chuck will likely want to RBF (replace-by-fee) or CPFP (child-pays-for-parent) to get those confirmations. Doing so increases the likelihood that his transaction will be included in the next pleb chain block. This also sends a signal to miners not mining on the pleb chain that there is high demand for pleb chain blocks and greedy miners will start mining those blocks to get the high transaction fees.
Darth has a plan to end BIP110
4. You’re trying to sabotage BIP110 (Darth)
Darth is smarter than the average bear. He intends to launch an attack to ensure BIP110 fails. We’re not exactly sure what Darth’s plan will be. We’ve heard that maybe Darth is planning to launch some new VC backed token that will only be valid on the VC chain. We’ve also heard that Darth is planning to spam the pleb chain to teach us a lesson. Maybe both. Who knows? Maybe Darth himself is confused whether it’s better to spam the VC chain or the pleb chain to prove his point. Either way, Darth may at some point want confirmations on the pleb chain. Darth will likely want to RBF (replace-by-fee) or CPFP (child-pays-for-parent) to get that confirmation. Doing so increases the likelihood that his transaction will be included in the next pleb chain block. This also sends a signal to miners not mining on the pleb chain that there is high demand for pleb chain blocks and greedy miners will start mining those blocks to get the high transaction fees.
Miners will provide the supply to meet the demand. On a side note, we briefly toyed with the idea of launching an accelerator service for users needing a pleb chain confirmation. We ultimately rejected such a move as we want to stay focused on mining transactions relayed through the Bitcoin node network. We don’t want to send any mixed signals on our commitment to the long-term health and resiliency of the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network. However, we believe that others have had the same thought we had. We believe that large mining pools, who already have accelerator services, are planning to launch these services on the pleb chain. It will be fun to see how this plays out.
What can you do as a BIP110 pleb or business during a chain split? Transact on-chain and insist on a confirmation on the pleb chain before you consider the payment valid. The users decide what Bitcoin is not the miners. Where users go, miners follow.
Roughneck Chronicles 2: The Rational Miner
X (formerly Twitter)
Roughnecks (@Roughnecks110) on X
Roughneck Chronicles 2: Rational Miner
Is Foundry preparing to flip the bit? 👀 Someone must have read our article and doesn't want to be left out of the gold rush from mining BIP110 blocks
GM Roughnecks! Our 1st article was a hit. Thank you to everyone who read & shared. Our next article will talk about arbitrary data and why it's just as harmful to miners as it is to nodes, hodlers, and merchants. Rational self-interested miners will reject arbitrary data 
X (formerly Twitter)
Roughnecks (@Roughnecks110) on X
Roughneck Chronicles 1
Roughneck Chronicles 1
X (formerly Twitter)
Roughnecks (@Roughnecks110) on X
Roughneck Chronicles 1
GM Roughnecks! The concern trolls are telling us to ignore 20% of the network and mine non-BIP110 blocks. We cannot mine blocks that leave us vulnerable to a reorg if a large pool flips the bit and invalidates all our block rewards
GM Roughnecks! Difficulty drops today, let's listen to some Johnny Cash while trying to find a block before and after change 🔉🪕🎵🎶
GM Roughnecks!
We have a nostr and an X account. We have no other accounts on any other platform. We certainly don't have an account on a scam gambling platform. We are not hedged in any way. Gambling is a sin. BIP110 will activate. Our opponents have resorted to desperate lies ⚔️💀⚔️
What it feels like when you see a new miner signal for BIP110
We salute our brothers and sisters at @npub10vkw...y3ep for mining their first BIP110 block
As we celebrate America's 250th birthday with another BIP110 block we are humbled by the amazing success of our ragtag mining operation. We started out a couple months ago with about 1 Eh/s. We have since grown to about 15 Eh/s which is roughly 1% of the network. We are blessed with this opportunity. God Bless America!
