Bitcoin Cash Upgrade 2022

The following open source software will include support for the 2022 Bitcoin Cash upgrade on or before Feb 15, 2022.

• Bitauth IDE
• Chaingraph
• Libauth

Additionally, these products will include testnet support for several proposed 2023 Bitcoin Cash upgrades by May 15, 2022.

Upgrade 2022

On May 15th, 2022, Bitcoin Cash will undergo a technical upgrade to further expand its virtual machine (VM) contracting capabilities. The upgrade will enable a variety of new financial products and services by:

1. Supporting arithmetic operations on significantly larger numbers. An expanded arithmetic range will enable contracts to manage very large balances with full precision, enabling contract-based treasuries and improving the efficiency of existing contract designs.
2. Adding new operations, including native introspection operations. These new operations will enable the development of far more secure wallets, efficient recurring payments, and more.

This upgrade has been discussed, developed, and reviewed by a large consortium of companies, development teams, and independent developers – including all existing node software teams. As of November 15, 2021, deliberation has concluded without contest, and the upgrade will activate on May 15, 2022 without a network split.

Upgrade Schedule

• Sep 15, 2021 – The upgrade was activated on a public test network.
• Nov 15, 2021 – Agreement has been reached on upgrade contents.
• Feb 15, 2022 – All ecosystem software is expected to have a stable release supporting the upgrade.
• May 15, 2022 – Upgrade is activated on the main network.

Upgrade Preparation

For Bitcoin Cash users, this upgrade requires no preparation; payments can safely be made and accepted throughout activation. Existing wallet software will continue to function without upgrades.

Miners, exchanges, and other node operators are advised to upgrade node software before May 15, 2022 to avoid service disruptions. The upgrade requires no downtime, and operations can proceed normally.

Technical Details

The May 15, 2022 upgrade includes the following consensus changes:

CHIP-2021-03: Bigger Script Integers (Discussion)

This proposal expands the integer range allowed in BCH contracts (from 32-bit to 64-bit numbers) and re-enables the multiplication opcode (OP_MUL).

CHIP-2021-02: Native Introspection Opcodes (Discussion)

This proposal adds a set of new virtual machine (VM) operations which enable BCH contracts to efficiently access details about the current transaction like output values, recipients, and more – without increasing transaction validation costs.

Upgrade 2023 Testnet

Several proposed specifications exist for a 2023 upgrade to Bitcoin Cash. While deliberations for a 2023 upgrade are likely to continue until Nov 15, 2022, at least one public test network should be available shortly after the 2022 upgrade.

For 2023 test networks, all Bitauth open source software will support at least the following proposals:

• CHIP-2021-05-vm-limits: Targeted Virtual Machine Limits
• CHIP-2021-05-loops: Bounded Looping Operations

Discussion & Contributions

For questions and discussion regarding these planned upgrades to Bitauth open source software, please join us in the Bitauth Telegram Group or the project-specific chat for Bitauth IDE and Chaingraph Devs.

You can also follow each project on GitHub: