Bitcoin.com endorses Bitcoin Cash Improvement Proposal (CHIP) 2021-05 VM Limits: Targeted Virtual Machine Limits.
The current VM limits, while necessary for security, have become a bottleneck for developers seeking to create sophisticated smart contracts. CHIP-2021-05 addresses these constraints head-on by removing the arbitrary 201 operation limit and increasing the stack element length from 520 bytes to a generous 10,000 bytes. It also introduces several changes to increase security and keep computational demands low by introducing a cumulative hashing limit and a new stack memory usage limit.
In plain terms, this proposal aims to make Bitcoin Cash (BCH) more powerful and efficient by adjusting the rules that currently limit how smart contracts can operate on the blockchain. Essentially, it allows for more advanced contracts by removing restrictions that make it hard and costly for developers to create new products. This will lead to more secure and sophisticated blockchain apps, such as decentralized exchanges, automated financial services, and cross-chain bridges
Additionally, the proposed transaction size reduction will make the network faster and more efficient, while lowering the workload for computers processing transactions. It also allows for larger, more complex data in contracts, enabling advanced technologies like zero-knowledge proofs and stronger encryption, which enhance BCH’s security and privacy features. These changes will make financial applications, such as decentralized exchanges and trading systems, more efficient and cost-effective. Lastly, the proposal lays the foundation for future upgrades, ensuring BCH can adapt and grow.
All of these positives do come with costs, of course. There are two big issues. First, there are always costs when introducing complexity, from adding potential vulnerabilities to the blockchain, to requiring app developers to learn and adhere to more nuanced rules, to unforeseen consequences that come with any significant protocol change. Second, this will cause a lot of backward compatibility issues. Existing contracts optimized for the current limits may need to be redesigned. Aside from those two, there are some smaller concerns like potential node performance impact and ecosystem fragmentation risks.
On balance, it’s clear to us that the rewards outweigh the risks. CHIP-2021-05 positions Bitcoin Cash as a more powerful platform for developers and users. It is also important because it ensures Bitcoin Cash smart contracts get a unique path to flourish, which acts as a hedge against the dominance of EVM smart contracts. Bitcoin.com CEO, Corbin Fraser, emphasized that, “’by enabling greater flexibility in smart contract design, BCH is positioning itself as a testbed for risk-on features, similar to how Litecoin led the way with Segwit before Bitcoin. It’ll be interesting to see how BCH developments are adopted in the crypto space.”
Andreas Larsson, Director of Engineering at Bitcoin.com, added that, “CHIP-2021-05 is net positive for Bitcoin Cash. By removing outdated restrictions, they’re giving developers the freedom to create the next generation of BCH dapps with greater efficiency and security. That’s obviously a win for users too.”
I agree with my teammates. By adopting forward-thinking upgrades like this proposal, Bitcoin Cash continues to push the boundaries of what a versatile blockchain for both everyday payments and more complex applications can achieve
Bitcoin Cash has established itself as a platform committed to scaling Bitcoin’s original vision of peer-to-peer electronic cash. Over the years, this has required BCH to innovate at a much faster pace than Bitcoin, which prized fail-proof reliability above all else. Now, with the Bitcoin community finally embracing change, Bitcoin Cash should serve as a testbed or roadmap for how Bitcoin can scale.
