Bitcoin PoW Change “Good Backup Plan”: Peter Todd On Scaling

[Disclaimer: For clarity, Peter Todd has since clarified to Cointelegraph that his comments were not directed specifically at Bitcoin Unlimited, but rather at any “proposals to actively attack the Bitcoin chain.”]

Consultant and Bitcoin Core Developer Peter Todd has advocated changes to the cryptocurrency’s proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm as the scaling debate continues.

As the prospect of a Bitcoin hard fork looms and associated “politicized” activity remains, Todd suggested “researching a PoW change” would be a “good backup plan.”

With some miners threatening 51% attacks against Bitcoin, researching a PoW change is a good backup plan: https://t.co/SEZ1qlxhAH — Peter Todd (@petertoddbtc) March 19, 2017

The ongoing infighting over how to resolve Bitcoin’s capacity woes now directly involves the industry’s major exchanges, a group of which signed a joint letter on Friday calling for Bitcoin Core to retain the ticker BTC and Bitcoin Unlimited to become BTU.

Reacting to what he describes as “some miners” threatening to force 51 percent attacks on the network, Todd proposed a concerted initiative to fundamentally change certain aspects of Bitcoin as it is in 2017.

Proof-of-work allows for verification of Bitcoin transactions through the production of time-consuming, fairly expensive activity which ensures their validity. The PoW upgrade would allegedly offer protection from such attacks, allowing individuals to mine once again and thereby increasing decentralization of the process.

“Changing the proof-of-work will fire the current crop of miners and open the door for quickly and easily scaling the network,” the project’s website states.

Despite Todd’s publicity, the upgrade plan is not sponsored or officially endorsed by Core, Bitcoin Project or Blockstream.

Elsewhere, highly charged rhetoric from Core supporters continues, with former BTC COO Samson Mow tweeting over the weekend, “You can’t sell a centralized coin to people that live & breathe the ideals of decentralization.”

You can’t sell a centralized coin to people that live & breathe the ideals of decentralization. Doesn’t matter how much hashrate you have. ✊ — Samson Mow (@Excellion) March 19, 2017