Explained: How Drivechain captured the attention of the Bitcoin community
Two Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs), 300 and 301, have overtaken the conversation in the Bitcoin community. Altogether known as Drivechain, these proposals would activate peer-to-peer trustless pegs between Bitcoin and up to 256 side blockchains (sidechains). Prior to August, a tracker of tweets containing the word “Drivechain” averaged less than a half dozen results per day. Nowadays, there are suddenly thousands of daily tweets about Drivechain. Sidechains using BIPs 300-301 are funded with BTC and withdrawable into BTC, yet they are entirely separate blockchains with independent rules, operations, and tokens. If the Bitcoin community were to activate these Drivechain BIPs, there could be up to 256 distinct sidechains, each denominated in BTC. Up to 256 new sidechains running on Bitcoin Each sidechain could operate any type of blockchain, including copies of existing ones or brand new ones. Indeed, there are already testnet versions of popular blockchains. For example, ther...