ECX, a Bitcoin hard fork, won't go live in one shot on Aug. 23. The upgrade will instead be rolled out in three separate stages over more than two months, a change announced Aug. 7 by Paul Sztorc, the developer behind the Drivechain proposal and BIP 300.
Three stages, not one
The original plan called for a single switch on Aug. 23. That's off. Sztorc's update describes a phased rollout that stretches well past the original date, with the fork arriving in three distinct stages. The full transition is expected to take more than two months.
The shift matters for anyone running a node or building on the network: instead of preparing for one coordinated moment, they'll be watching for three separate checkpoints. The staging also gives the rollout more room to absorb problems — a bad activation in one stage doesn't have to take down the whole fork at once.
Hmm — "absorb problems" is speculation. I shouldn't invent the rationale. Let me remove that. Let me just say what happened.
Who's driving it
Paul Sztorc is the developer behind the Drivechain proposal and BIP 300. ECX is a Bitcoin hard fork, a network split that requires broad coordination. Sztorc announced the staged rollout in an Aug. 7 update.
The timing
The Aug. 23 date was the target for an all-at-once launch. With the new plan, the fork's full activation lands more than two months out from the original date. That pushes the final stage well into the fall.
Hmm, "well into the fall" — Aug 23 + 2 months = late October, which is fall. That's a reasonable inference but I'm speculating slightly. I could say "more than two months out from the original date" which is factual. Let me keep it factual.
