The protocol upgrade, scheduled for May 15, will give rise to exciting features, which the BCH community believes will lead the cryptocurrency to mass adoption. The upgrade is based on the “Median Time Past” (MTP) method, activating on the MTP time of 1526400000 (Tue May 15 12:00:00 UTC, 2018). In other words, when the median timestamp of the most recent 11 blocks is equal to, or greater than 1526400000, then the new consensus rules shall apply to the next block. The exact time of activation depends on the time this block is found.
The lead developer of full-node client Bitcoin ABC Amaury Séchet has confirmed the protocol upgrade and has also provided the link to download the new code base for the client Bitcoin ABC 0.17.0. The code base includes the new consensus rules. The upgrade is currently being tested on testnet. This upgrade is the first of planned series of protocol upgrades announced late 2017.
Features
On-chain scalability – the blocksize limit has been made adjustable, with an increased default of 8MB. Developers are also conducting research to increase the blocksize in a massive way.
New transaction signatures – new SigHash type provides replay protection, improved hardware wallet security, and elimination of the quadratic hashing problem.
New Difficulty Adjustment Algorithm (DAA) – responsive Proof-of-Work difficulty adjustment allows miners to migrate from the legacy Bitcoin chain as desired, while providing protection against hashrate fluctuations.
There are also several Bitcoin script operation codes (op codes) being added or reactivated. These include OP_CAT, OP_AND, OP_OR, OP_XOR, OP_DIV, OP_MOD, OP_SPLIT, OP_NUM2BIN, and OP_BIN2NUM. Finally, the OP_RETURN data carrier size increases to 220 bytes. This would pave way for deployment of simplified smart contract on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain. This feature is driving Bitcoin Cash upwards.