Paul "Stonny" Storzc, the developer behind the Drivechain proposal and BIP 300, announced this change in an August 7th update. ECX is a new blockchain network that copies the complete Bitcoin transaction history at a specified block height, crediting nearly every Bitcoin holder (with the exception of some Satoshi coins) with an equal amount of ECX. The Bitcoin network itself remains unchanged.
Storzc Splits the Launch into Three Phases
According to the plan, the "alpha" version of ECX will launch on August 23rd at block 963,648. This will be followed by the "beta" version on September 20th at block 967,680. The final, full launch is scheduled for October 31st at block 973,728.
"The alpha and beta launches will (ideally) resemble the full launch in every way," Storzc wrote on Friday. Coins accumulated during the alpha and beta testing phases can later be burned or swapped for genuine ECX after the permanent chain launches on October 31st.
Why Wait? Storzc Points to Software Risks and Price Discovery
Storzc listed several reasons for the phased launch. Among them: giving the project time to deal with what he termed "the LLM bug chaos," allowing the market to establish an early price for ECX before the network's mining difficulty stabilizes, and providing traders an opportunity to test and speculate prior to the final launch.
He also described the phased approach as a "safety net." "This gives us a buffer in case any major issues or disasters arise," he wrote, adding that this format serves as a live demonstration for those wondering whether the new chain will function as intended. This move comes at a time when cryptocurrency developers are struggling to protect projects from bugs that are being discovered at an accelerating rate by artificial intelligence (AI) models.
Replay Protection Remains Optional, and Storzc Warns Users
One detail carried over from the original plan: replay protection—a mechanism that prevents a transaction from being executed simultaneously on both the Bitcoin and ECX chains—remains optional rather than automatic. The official ECX wallet software will apply this protection and warn users before conducting a transaction.
Storzc was quite direct about what awaits those who ignore this warning. "If you ignore us, we will replay your transactions," he wrote, meaning that ECX will track a user's outgoing bitcoins to their new owner unless the split was performed intentionally.
Full Launch Aligns with Symbolic Date
The mainnet launch date of October 31st is not coincidental. It falls on Halloween, exactly on the 18th anniversary of the publication of Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin white paper—the document that first described Bitcoin's architecture in 2008.
What Comes Next
Storzc gave holders and exchanges a specific deadline to prepare. "You have 12 weeks to prepare," he wrote, referring to the period between the alpha launch on August 23rd and the full launch on October 31st.
Until then, Bitcoin holders and exchanges must make a number of practical decisions: whether to run the official wallet software to split their BTC and ECX holdings, how exchanges plan to credit customers with the new asset, and how the network's mining difficulty will behave when the alpha and beta phases begin generating real activity. Each of the three block heights—963,648 in August, 967,680 in September, and 973,728 in October—will be the next checkpoint to watch.
Storzc's announcement comes as Bitcoin faces another fork of a different kind—BIP-110, which is estimated to occur at some point today.
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