Drivechain explained
Sidechains secured by Bitcoin's miners: what BIPs 300 and 301 propose and where they stand.
Drivechain in plain English
Drivechain lets bitcoin move to other blockchains (sidechains) and back without trusting a company or a federation. Deposits are locked on Bitcoin. Withdrawals are slow on purpose: miners vote on each batch block by block, in public, for months. Users who do not care about sidechains can ignore all of it; the proposal's main design goal is that it makes no difference to them.
The two BIPs
- BIP 300 · Hashrate escrows
- The consensus rules for locking coins and approving withdrawals by miner votes: a bundle succeeds at 13,150 upvotes and expires after 26,300 blocks. Status: Draft. Source
- BIP 301 · Blind merged mining
- Lets Bitcoin miners earn sidechain fees without running the sidechain: sidechain block builders pay miners for the right to include their block hash. Status: Draft. Source
Why miners care
Drivechain gives miners a new job and a new income. They would vote on withdrawals, which is a responsibility, and collect fees from sidechain activity, which is revenue that does not halve. Critics argue it hands miners too much power over sidechain funds and pulls them into politics; supporters answer that withdrawals are slow, public and can be refused by users. Either way, it cannot activate without miner signaling and node support.
Status
Both BIPs are Draft in the official repository (checked 2026-10-12). Neither has a deployment in Bitcoin Core.
Questions
- What is Drivechain?
- A proposal to let Bitcoin hold coins for sidechains, with withdrawals approved by miners over months instead of by a federation. It is two BIPs: BIP 300 (hashrate escrows) and BIP 301 (blind merged mining).
- Is Drivechain active on Bitcoin?
- No. BIPs 300 and 301 are Draft in the bitcoin/bips repository and have not been activated.
- How do Drivechain withdrawals work?
- Withdrawals from a sidechain are batched into a bundle. Miners upvote it at most once per block; it needs 13,150 upvotes within 26,300 blocks, so the fastest withdrawal takes about three months.
- What do miners get from Drivechain?
- Blind merged mining (BIP 301) lets SHA-256 miners collect fees from sidechains without running sidechain software, by selling the right to build each sidechain block.
- Who proposed Drivechain?
- Paul Sztorc, with CryptAxe. BIP 300 was assigned in 2017, BIP 301 in 2019.
Sources
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