Speaking in a recently conducted AMA session on the Chinese crypto platform 8btc, Gavin Andresen — the Bitcoin Foundation's Chief Scientist — doubled down on his commitment to Bitcoin Classic and its
Speaking in a recently conducted AMA session on the Chinese crypto platform 8btc, Gavin Andresen — the Bitcoin Foundation's Chief Scientist — doubled down on his commitment to Bitcoin Classic and its ongoing development roadmap. The former Bitcoin Core lead developer emphasized his intention to remain active across multiple projects, including Bitcoin Classic, Bitcoin Core, and Bitcoin Unlimited.
According to Andresen, Bitcoin Classic's primary focus centers on expanding its developer base and strengthening the broader Bitcoin community. The project plans to establish a more welcoming and collaborative environment compared to Bitcoin Core's existing structure. He projected: "You can expect to see some results in the next month or two." The alternative implementation currently commands approximately 5 percent of the network's total hashrate.
Regarding Bitcoin Core's future dominance, Andresen expressed skepticism. "I think you might be surprised at what most people are running a year or three from now. Perhaps it will be a future version of Bitcoin Core, but I think there is a very good chance another project will be more successful," he noted.
Bitcoin Classic intends to streamline its development workflow significantly. Rather than Bitcoin Core's consensus-driven approach, the rival client will operate through faster iteration methods. Andresen outlined the methodology: "The development process for Classic will be a little bit different, with a 'develop' branch where code will be pulled more quickly and then either fixed or reverted based on how testing goes. The goal is to create a more developer-friendly process, with pull requests either accepted or rejected fairly quickly." The protocol change activation threshold differs substantially between implementations — Bitcoin Core demands 95 percent network support for soft forks, while Bitcoin Classic targets 75 percent backing for proposed hard forks that would lift the block size constraint.
Andresen remains unconvinced that waiting is appropriate. "It will happen sooner or later — almost everybody agrees it must happen. I am still working to make it happen sooner, because the longer it takes, the worse for Bitcoin," he stated. Several major exchanges have reportedly explored launching competing mining operations specifically to advance the block size expansion agenda. Andresen characterized this potential intervention as the system functioning as intended: "[I]f a centralized mining pool does become too big and does something bad, the simplest solution is for businesses or people to get together and create or fund a competitor. Some of the big Bitcoin exchanges have been seriously considering doing exactly that to support raising the block size limit, and that is exactly the way the system is supposed to work — if you don't like what the miners are doing, then compete with them!"
The Chief Scientist remains unconvinced by Segregated Witness as an adequate response. He projects that growing transaction demand will outpace whatever capacity improvements SegWit delivers. Should Bitcoin Classic fail to implement its hard fork within the BIP 109 timeframe, Andresen pledged: "If BIP 109 does not happen, I will still be pushing to get a good on-chain solution to happen as soon as possible."
The approaching block reward halving presents additional urgency. Miners confronting reduced revenue could abandon the network, potentially lengthening block creation times and limiting transaction throughput. Andresen elaborated: "There is a small risk that the halving will make a good fraction of the miners stop mining, because they will get about half of the bitcoins they got before the halving. And that might mean blocks take longer to create, which means less space for transactions, which might mean people get frustrated and leave Bitcoin. Which could drop the price even more, causing more miners to stop mining, more frustration, and so on."
Recent discussions between Chinese industry participants and block size advocates addressed these concerns directly. When pressed on whether the halving poses genuine risk, Andresen noted reassurance from mining operators: "Miners tell me they have already planned ahead for the halving and this [crisis] will not happen, which is why I think it is a small risk and I don't think the halving will be a big problem for most miners."
