Blockstream is a blockchain technology startup and it has huge plans for the industry. Towards the end of 2018, Blockstream began beaming the entire Bitcoin blockchain from satellites in space. Designed to allow Bitcoin transactions to occur even without the presence of the undersea cable internet, Blockstream instantly made Bitcoin payments accessible to rural communities around the globe. This time round, Blockstream has announced its new Multisig standard called Musig.
What is Musig?
Musig might seem a little pointless from the outside – especially as Multisig is just starting to catch on. However, the improvements Musig proposes will allow Bitcoin transactions to become far more scalable and more confidential than ever before. It uses the same Schorr-based Multisig scheme, but has been tweaked to make it more user friendly and scalable – perfect for the world’s leading cryptocurrency.
In Test Mode for Now
Currently the code is still in the testing phase, but is available on GitHub for the community to try it out and provide feedback. While this means that your Bitcoin transactions won’t start using Musig for a little while longer, it gives Blockstram the ability to test it out and ensure that it runs without any issues. For it to go live, Bitcoin will have to undergo a fresh hard fork – something that it rarely does.
Hard Fork on the Horizon
The prospect of a Bitcoin hard fork is likely sending shivers down the spine of many crypto hodlers, and for a good reason. After the Bitcoin Cash hash war of 2018, many people could be fearing that a Bitcoin hard fork would lead to a massive crash in price. BCH stopped trading on every exchange around the world and transactions were struggling to be confirmed. The possibility of this happening to Bitcoin could be potentially devastating, but the likelihood of it happening is very slim. The Bitcoin Core community share relatively similar ideologies, meaning that they will all agree to implement Musig and Bitcoin will resume as a solo entity rather than splitting in two like Bitcoin Cash did.
For those of you who still aren’t sure about Musig and how it will work, you need not panic. Nothing will change about how you make crypto payments, you will just notice that the confirmation time is relatively faster – similarly to the lightning network. It’s not likely to go live for a while as it’s just entered the public testing phase, but we could see it on the cards for early 2020.
