Bitcoin Forking Guide

The discourse highlights the ongoing challenges within the programming community, specifically regarding the development of covenants and contracting primitives for cryptocurrencies. A significant issue identified is the difficulty in achieving social consensus before reaching technical consensus. This problem is attributed to the diverse array of ideas on how to properly implement covenant mechanisms, with the design often being influenced by the specific use cases envisioned. The discussion points out that this diversity has led to frustration among developers and stakeholders, partly because the consensus process appears to be "memoryless," with arguments being repetitively brought up without any progression year after year.

The lack of a high-quality technical archive is pinpointed as a core issue hindering progress. Such an archive would allow researchers and protocol developers to draw from a shared pool of experiences, ideas, and frameworks, facilitating a more unified approach to consensus change. The current resources, such as certain pages on the Bitcoin wiki, are criticized for being too focused on individual opinions rather than presenting a comprehensive overview of the ideas, trade-offs, and potential use cases associated with different proposals.

Efforts to create a more structured documentation and discussion platform have been made, as exemplified by the Bitcoin Contracting Primitives Working Group and a documentation attempt by Optech. These initiatives aimed at organizing public IRC meetings and documenting covenant proposals to foster a deeper understanding among participants. However, the need for a well-maintained, objective, and non-partisan online archive remains a critical unmet need within the community. Such an initiative, if undertaken by reputable entities, would likely be welcomed and could play a significant role in overcoming the current barriers to consensus building in the field.