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Bitcoin Coders Confront an Old Quandary: How to Upgrade an Entire Network

An old debate is resurfacing in the bitcoin developer community, underscoring one of the critical challenges confronting decentralized systems.

By Alyssa Hertig

Updated Sep 13, 2021, 12:19 p.m. Published Feb 19, 2020, 9:00 a.m.

MOVING PARTS: How does a whole network smoothly upgrade in a way that's backward-compatible, allowing those with older versions of the software to continue participating? (Image via Library of Congress/Rawpixel)