Most of the myths about the king of cryptocurrencies are incorrect. So, what’s the truth? Is the often-cited attribute of being “immutable” actually true? Today, we focus on a critical topic that every crypto investor should know.
Misconceptions About Bitcoin
The Turkish crypto community is familiar with Tobby, who recently discussed the misunderstood narrative of Bitcoin‘s immutability. Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency, was an essential experiment and an alternative to the existing financial system. Let’s delve into Tobby’s discourse on how Bitcoin has changed and its mutable nature.
One common aspect often heard about other cryptocurrencies is mainnet updates. Optimism, for instance, has carried out the latest one. This change increases network speed and reduces transaction fees. Bitcoin has also undergone numerous changes.
Changes in the Bitcoin Network
Satoshi Nakamoto initiated Bitcoin, but the code has been modified multiple times since then. Initial code errors were corrected with the support of many developers. Then, on August 15, 2010, a vulnerability was found in block 74630, allowing three accounts to mint 184 billion BTC. When the flaw was detected, the Bitcoin codebase was modified and forked in block 74931. The Bitcoin network was down for 8 hours and 27 minutes during this period.
This instance demonstrates that the 21 million cap has been breached due to a technical error in the past. The supposedly ever-running Bitcoin network also experienced a halt of 8 hours and 27 minutes.
On May 5, 2012, there was a block hash collision attack. By altering Merkle Roots, double spending was possible on Bitcoin. This issue was swiftly addressed, and Nakamoto was not involved in this correction.
Bitcoin forked due to node disagreement on March 20, 2013, resulting in a 6 hour and 20-minute outage.
Bitcoin integrated SegWit on March 12, 2017, which increased block sizes. Then, on November 13, 2021, the block size was further increased with Taproot, which also introduced support for Schnorr signatures. By April, NFTs and tokens could be minted on the network. The technical infrastructure was prepared much earlier.
Misconceptions Debunked
Like Ethereum, Solana, and other networks that can fork, updates can be made to the Bitcoin network. Even past errors breached the 21 million supply limit. Therefore, any changes can be made to the Bitcoin network in the future, given consensus.
Contrary to the belief that the Bitcoin network never stops, it has stopped at least twice to date.
