[bitcoin-dev] March 23rd 2021 Taproot Activation Meeting Notes

[Michael Folkson]

Thanks for this Jeremy. I agree with the vast majority of this.

For those that missed yesterday's meeting the meeting log is here:
http://gnusha.org/taproot-activation/2021-03-23.log

Jeremy also livestreamed the meeting on his Twitch channel:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/960346848

On the choice between using block heights consistently or using a
weird mix of both block heights and MTP in the same activation
mechanism you can put me down for a NACK for the latter also.

In addition I documented here the preferences for a consistent use of
block height:
https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/21377#issuecomment-802336038

If it was a direct choice between entirely block height or entirely
MTP then I probably wouldn't NACK either. But using a mix of both
makes no sense to me.

The two arguments in favor of using a weird mix of block heights and
MTP appear to be:
1) "additional review required to ensure height based activation"
2) To prevent a "marketed push to launch a UASF client."

On 1) I would argue that the additional review required is not
excessive by any means and we have the time to review a consistent use
of block height (especially if people spent their time reviewing a PR
with a consistent use of block height rather than arguing for a mix).
On 2) if we are making technical decisions based on speculating on the
marketing strategies of other projects Bitcoin Core is a very
different project to the project I thought it was.

I personally would find it much easier to reason about timings and
time intervals of the different activation phases if block heights are
used consistently across the activation mechanism rather than a weird
mix of both block heights and MTP.

Other than that, I agree it was an excellent meeting and thanks for
your efforts organizing and hosting the meeting.

-- 
Michael Folkson
Email: michaelfolkson at gmail.com
Keybase: michaelfolkson
PGP: 43ED C999 9F85 1D40 EAF4 9835 92D6 0159 214C FEE3