Consensus Change Standards: A Legal and Technical Framework for Bitcoin Protocol Governance
Abstract
Sixth Edition, September 2026. Proposes minimum standards for evaluating Bitcoin consensus-change proposals: submission requirements, tiered minimum review periods, code-audit standards, activation-threshold floors backed by a quantified chain-split risk model grounded in the double-spend / gambler's-ruin literature (Nakamoto §11; Rosenfeld; Grunspan & Pérez-Marco) with the design rationale for computing the floor on the pre-activation signaling snapshot, a split-harm gradient and evidence-anchoring (timestamp-proof) analysis of what a chain split costs non-monetary uses, a 20-criterion readiness scorecard with four worked examples (Taproot, BIP-110, SegWit2x, and a hypothetical data-liberalizing change scored Red as a neutrality test), positioning against the open-standards governance tradition (IETF; PEP→BIP→EIP), a legal-liability analysis (negligence with the economic-loss-rule routes current through S. Cal. Gas Leak Cases (2019), tortious interference, fiduciary duty with both sides of the scholarship, antitrust treatment of the group-boycott line, pool-operator contract exposure, regulatory consequences), a documentary record for the BIP-110 case study (resolved on the block record: 0 of 2,016 blocks signaled in the mandatory window, the activation height passed unenforced, and the enforcing minority chain changed its proof of work), and model adoption policy language for exchanges, mining pools, and node-software platforms.
