BIP 300 — Hashrate Escrows, Consensus layer

BIP 300 (Hashrate Escrows, Consensus layer) proposes a consensus soft fork enabling 'drivechain' sidechains: coins move to an escrow controlled by miner ratification, and withdrawals back to the main chain succeed only after sustained miner approval over an extended period (thousands of blocks). Repository status: Draft — not activated.

Debate relevance: A perennial live-debate topic: whether miner-ratified withdrawals are an acceptable security model is genuinely contested, with proponents arguing the long withdrawal window lets users respond and critics arguing it hands miners custodial-like power. It also anchors 'sidechains vs L2s vs altcoins' arguments. Common misstatements: "Drivechains are activated / already running on Bitcoin" — BIP 300 remains a Draft; test deployments elsewhere are not mainnet Bitcoin consensus. Presenting either the security critique or the defense as settled — this one is a legitimately contested claim, not a resolved fact.