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Ethereum: What is SPV mining, and how did it (inadvertently) cause the fork after BIP66 was activated?

Published by Terlumun Aondover on February 11th, 2025.

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Unintentional consequences of SPV mining: How did you contribute to Ethereum Villa

As one of the pioneers of the decentralized internet, Ethereum was at the forefront of the digital revolution. At the same time, like any complex technology, its development and maintenance was not without challenge. One of these challenges was the notorious Kemény villa in 2016, which was triggered by the introduction of SPV (al-pairwise control) mining.

What is SPV mining?

Ethereum: What is SPV mining, and how did it (inadvertently) cause the fork after BIP66 was activated?

SPV mining is a method to validate transactions on the Ethereum network using a technique called “Tet” (POS). Instead of relying solely on energy-intensive work and energy consumption algorithm, which requires significant calculation and energy consumption, SPV mining uses another approach. Using the Elliptical Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA), also known as Bitcoin’s secret key format, miners can enforce transactions without requireing huge amounts of calculation.

The main advantage of SPV mining is to allow more efficient and decentralized network validation, which in turn allows faster transaction processing time. This approach facilitates the size of the network while maintaining energy efficiency.

BIP66: Critical element in the hard villa

In order to understand how the BIP66 (branch 1) was introduced and later led to the hard villa, we must immerse themselves in the history of Ethereum development.

In 2017, the Ethereum team decided to introduce a new account called “MainNet” to primary implementation of the protocol. At the same time, they wanted to keep their existing code base for retrospective compatibility purposes. To achieve this, a branch called BIP66 was created, which was designed to maintain the original MainNet with retroactive compatibility.

BIP66 was activated in January 2017 and introduced a number of key features that eventually contribute to the hard fork. They belong to:

He preserved the same rules and mechanisms as the original Ethereum network, but with some changes.

BIP66 Bridge : The BIP66 Bridge allowed the original mainnet and so on. Smooth interactions, allowing users to switch between the two implementations without significant technical difficulties.

The Hard Villa: The consequence of SPV mining

In February 2017, the Ethereum team announced that it would activate a hard fork called “Ethereum Classic” (etc.). This decision was made in response to the consequences of BIP66’s growing popularity and its retroactive compatibility.

A etc. By presenting an alternative implementation, the Ethereum team hoped:

Maintaining backward compatibility

: Keeping both mainnet and etc. alive can support older versions of the network while allowing new users to change.

Avoid loss of user funds : Hard fork has ensured that users invested or held in the ether can continue without any significant losses.

However, this decision brought an unwanted consequence: activating the BIP66 led to a fork in the Ethereum network. As more and more users have switched from mainnet to ETC, the original MainNet implementation has become increasingly unstable.

The consequences of SPV mining

The introduction of BIP66 has significant consequences for Ethereum ecosystem:

Increased fragmentation : The hard villa created an additional branch (etc.), which was incompatible with both the mainne and the etc.

Loss of energy efficiency : With the introduction of a new implementation, Ethereum’s energy consumption has increased, making it less energy efficient than its original pow-based architecture.

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