It is important that client upgrades occur in a timely manner, particularly when they contain protocol changes. It is also critically important that individuals control what updates they receive. If we centrally pushed client updates it would put the entire network at risk to the scenario that the person controlling the updates would make a mistake, or that they would be coerced into pushing an update that is not in shareholder’s best interests. On the other hand, individual shareholders are frequently not paying attention to upgrades offered or simply don’t want to take the time to upgrade when they would happily accept an upgrade if it didn’t take their time or attention.
There is a way to provide automatic client updates without the use of a central authority via data feeds. Just as in version 0.5.3 shareholders can subscribe to any data feed they like to define their vote, shareholders could also use a data feed of their own choosing to either notify them when an upgrade is needed or to alternatively automatically install it. Automatic installation should be the default behavior. Eventually, a default data feed provider would be chosen at first install somewhat randomly but in proportion to the present popularity of each data feed. An exact method for determining the popularity of various data feeds is still in being devised, but I digress.
There are a number of specifics to be worked out, like what the best method is for effecting an automatic update. There will also need to be new RPCs to support this. I’m hoping someone on our team or someone who would like to become part of the team will take the time to define these specifics and finalize the motion. Otherwise, hopefully I will eventually have time to finalize the motion, but I doubt it will be soon.
