The Bitcoin Cash Podcast is adding its support & approval for CHIP-2021-05 VM Limits: Targeted Virtual Machine Limits & CHIP-2024-07 BigInt: High-Precision Arithmetic, to lock in November 15 2024 & go live May 15 2025.
- CHIP-2021-05 VM Limits: Targeted Virtual Machine Limits
- CHIP-2024-07 BigInt: High-Precision Arithmetic for Bitcoin Cash
The VM Limits CHIP has been long desired & heavily requested by builders in the space. As any product manager knows, with limited resources it's important to build what end users (in this case, application developers) actually need rather than what the engineers (in this case, CHIP proposers & BitcoinCashResearch regulars) feel most excited about & the demand for these VM Limit upgrades is already well established among real world use cases. In fact, we're even seeing interest from OUTSIDE the BCH space - which to my knowledge is a first for BCH development before an upgrade has hit mainnet, let alone chipnet! This is a great vindication of progress in both the relevance & quality of upgrade work, as well as the messaging & productive discussion around it.
The amount of work done on VM Limits is very impressive, producing a thorough analysis & also additional reusable tooling for testing the BCH VM. This level of rigour and engineering excellence is typical of BCH CHIPs, helping to set us apart from our competitors (particularly as the cumulative effect snowballs over time), and I feel this CHIP has continued that tradition.
In reviewing the CHIP, it was also obvious to me (as Jason had explained to me on the show) that the new limit selections contain very few "choices" - instead they are the logical result of engineering analysis for an optimal value. This is a good indicator that the work is fundamentally valid & unlikely to need revisions.
Although the Big Ints part of the process did operate slightly unusually, I am not concerned we're taking an excessive / serious risk or setting a problematic precedent in approving it for this November 2024 for the following reasons:
- The quality of the CHIP on its own is very high (taken together with the VM Limits references).
- In my own observation, I have seen overwhelming community support for a 2024 lock in (community discussion channels, Podcast listener survey, other statements of support, my own personal conversations etc.) instead of a delay.
- Consensus appears certain on the concept of (Big) Big Ints & intended working of the CHIP, therefore I feel even in the unlikely case of an unexpected issue the community will similarly be able to find agreement on a solution. Contention over fixing "bugs" tends to occur in cases where the initial change was not well understood or desired (as with BTC Taproot Inscriptions), and I don't think that's the case here.
- Of anyone requesting somewhat of an exception for this specific type of scenario, you couldn't find a better candidate than Jason Dreyzehner. Previous CHIP author, technical aficionado, conscientious BCH contributor over many many years. Attempts to argue for future changes to happen similarly not only will need to provide evidence for the similarity of the surrounding circumstances, but also the credibility of the proposer.
With these mitigating factors in mind & given the sizeable lost opportunity cost of delay, I think it clear that the best choice is to activate both the VM Limits CHIP as well as accompanying Big Ints this year.
I look forward to the activation of both CHIPs on chipnet next month & the flow on effect of increased app development & community momentum.
Final note: The ABLA Explainer video from last year received an incredibly positive community response. Building on that success, I will also be working with Jason & others to produce promotional/educational material for the BCH community and broader visibility around the importance & impact of these 2025 upgrades. If anyone has any particular suggestions or ideas in this regard, I'm always open to discuss it.
Jeremy