During November 2019 the Bismuth community went with the first governance vote, about supply emission. The issue was overwhelming votes for a fork to support a supply reduction. If you missed it, you can find it here. Since then, the team worked hard to implement the change and release a stable version, now out.
Questions and answers regarding this fork have been divided into three categories- Regular users, Hypernode owners, and miners.
All Users:
Q: Can you explain why there will be a hard fork?
A: A hard fork was scheduled in response to the first Bismuth community vote. It’s the result of a democratic process that showed a significant involvement from the Bismuth community.
Q: When is the Hard Fork to take place?
A: The HF will take place at block 1,450,000. That should be roughly on November 26.
Regular User:
Q: Do I have to DO anything? New wallet? No swapping BS or anything right?
A: Regular wallet owners can optionally upgrade, however it is not necessary. It will continue to work. Mandatory upgrade is for node and Hypernodes owners. There is no swap.
Q: Is it still ok to use the old wallet or should I upgrade to Tornado?
A: The “old” (Legacy) wallet still is compatible and can be used. You don’t have to worry about the wallet. Yours will continue to work.
As a user, the only thing you’ll ever need to really take care of is your wallet.der/json backup which contains your private key(s)
Q: Can you summarize what the current daily emission is and what it will be after hardfork?
A: See the emission curve and blog post here: https://hypernodes.bismuth.live/?p=989
Q: What will be the new total BIS supply?
A: In year 2032, at block height 8,000,000, the total supply of BIS will reach 49.3 million BIS. That compares to 63.5 million BIS with the previous emissions curve. Hence, over the next 13 years the total supply will be reduced by more than 14 million BIS. After the year 2032 the total supply will increase very slowly, less than 2%, to counteract the effect of lost wallets and to keep some incentives to miners and Hypernode operators to remain in the BIS ecosystem.
Q: Can you see a scenario where chain splits in two?
A: Every hard fork technically involves a chain split, however the legacy chain dies off due to lack of support. The miner, exchanges and economic majority stand with the v4.4.0 hard fork proposal, so there needn’t be any worry about a competing legacy chain.
Q: Have you informed exchanges to avoid any trading halt like it used to happen in past
A: All partners, exchanges, service operators, pools, have been informed of course. All latest forks went smoothly and did not cause any trading halt.
Hypernode and Node owner:
Q: After hard fork, how can I re-operate my Hypernode? Will I need to do anything with my HN?
A: Every Hypernode relies on a local Node to operate. Hypernodes do not need to be updated if you’re on the latest version 0.0.99i5, but the local BIS node needs to.
So, it’s mandatory you upgrade your node to latest release BEFORE the fork.
https://github.com/bismuthfoundation/Bismuth/releases
Q: Will there be a HN update tutorial before the hardfork?
A: Yes. We updated our easy to use update script that should take care of the common situations, that is, default installs.
To run the update script, just type or copy+paste the following lines on your Hypernode terminal window:
rm hn_node_update.py
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bismuthfoundation/util/master/hn_node_update.py
python3 hn_node_update.py
The update script requires Python 3.7, but it will tell you after you run the command above, including any missing Python packages (if any). Feedback about this update script can be left in the #hypernodes channel on the Discord server, https://discord.gg/4tB3pYJ. For more information and manual update notes, you can refer to https://github.com/bismuthfoundation/Bismuth-FAQ/blob/master/Hypernodes/Hypernodes_Upgrade_0-0-99.md
Q: What will be the new annual yield for running a Bis Hypernode after the fork?
A: That depends on the number of new Hypernode operators joining and old ones leaving. Assuming that the total amount of collateral remains constant, the yield will initially remain where it is today, at about 20%. That number is designed to match well with the inflation rate during the next 12 months, which will be 19.4%. Hence, Hypernode owners will not be diluted anymore after the hard fork. In the second year after the hard fork, the inflation rate will drop below 15%. It is expected that Hypernode owners from then on will earn net positive income, after the inflation is taken into account.
Q: What if I don’t upgrade in time?
A: All other $BIS nodes will curse then ban you.
You have to upgrade, the sooner the better. Both for the network and for your rewards.
Miner:
Q: Do I have anything to do?
A: Nothing. Pools will update. Miner software does not need upgrading.
You’ll continue to mine as before.