Historical retrospective · Bitcoin
BIP 91 provided a coordination mechanism during the SegWit activation debate
BIP 91 documented a miner-signaling mechanism that could coordinate enforcement of SegWit-related rules during a contentious upgrade period.
Its role was organizational as well as technical: it offered a path for participants to signal readiness within Bitcoin’s existing deployment machinery.
The episode highlighted that decentralized networks still rely on social coordination among miners, node operators, developers, businesses and users.
Signaling records preferences and readiness; it does not make a protocol change legitimate without users enforcing the rules they choose.
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