is ABC-checkpointing a kind of a soft-fork?
Depends... In case of a deep re-org, chain could split because other clients don't have checkpoints (BU, etc). In the near future, maybe Toomim's proposal have consensus.
But right now it's just a client policy, I don't see it as a soft fork. I find Toomim's algorithm better than checkpoints, implementation in all clients will avoid splits.
let say China isolates its internet from the world for 4h; miners in China will continue mining among themselves for more than 10 blocks & then China restores outside access - ABC-fork
Then ABC chain will be fucked up... with or without checkpoints.
naah, upon restoring of outside connection the miners would just switch to working on the longest chain irrelevant of the period of separation (when checkpointing is not in play)
Yes, with no checkpoints miners will switch to the longest chain. With checkpoints, that will lead to a chain split and human intervention will be needed to solve it.
ughhh we are never getting to sound-global-money if we are relying on humans agreeing 😔
Yeah, but in that catastrophic situation, a chain split it's even possible without checkpoints: miners just have to manually declare invalid the Chinese chain.
wouldnt transactions on the minority chain then be reverted? (not that check points would change this, just trying to understand)
yes, 4h of history of the minority chain would disappear
