Samourai Wallet Intends to Run BIP 148 Until SegWit is Fully Activated

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Samourai Wallet, one of the most innovative privacy-focused wallet service providers in the market, intends to run Bitcoin Improvement Proposal BIP 148 until the Bitcoin Development team’s transaction malleability fix and scaling solution Segregated Witness (SegWit) is fully activated.

BIP 148 and lockin of SegWit

The Bitcoin community and industry have come significantly closer to the activation of SegWit. However, as Bitcoin Core developer and well-respected cryptography consultant Peter Todd explained earlier this week, the lock-in of BIP 91, a kludge-like solution between BIP 141 (original SegWit proposal) and SegWit2x, does not necessarily mean that SegWit activation is completely finalized as of yet.At the moment, contrary to most expectations, the mining community is fully signaling their intent to activate BIP 141, the safest and the most efficient way to activate SegWit according to Todd.In fact, according to various sources and block analysis platforms such as Coin Dance, SegWit activation via BIP is close, but not quite there yet.Jameson Lopp, an engineer at BitGo, a leading multi-signature and security services provider, states:

“SegWit is not activated on Bitcoin yet. It will take several more weeks to lock in SegWit, then a couple more to activate it.”

Since the initial 80 percent hashrate threshold was met on July 16, Bitcoin price has increased from $1,850 to $2,860. Although Bitcoin had a major correction, it remains relatively high at $2,740.Such a rapid increase in pricing in a short period demonstrates the trust investors, traders, users and businesses have gained in the ability of Bitcoin to scale in both the mid and long run.

Why are Samourai Wallet and many node operators running BIP 148?

Earlier this week, Todd explained in a statement that there’s a 25 percent chance that the activation of SegWit may not be completed. Miners could attempt to renegotiate and refrain from signaling BIP 141 to activate SegWit.It has become quite evident that the mining community wants to activate SegWit as fast as possible with 95 percent of hashrate signaling Bit 1 and BIP 141.However, in the past few days, Samourai Wallet and others have emphasized the importance to remain vigilant to ensure SegWit is activated securely, without any potential security and stability issues.The Samourai Wallet team says:

“Samourai Wallet will continue running #BIP148 #UASF nodes until SegWit is locked in via BIP 141 - Keep vigilant.”

So far, pressure from user-activated soft fork (UASF) and SegWit2x, the proposal to activate SegWit and increase block size to 2MB, has allowed Bitcoin to scale.Still, it is important to ensure the process is smooth and SegWit is activated as soon as possible.