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Assuming you are not operating a node that is transacting at a high volume, if you want to play it safe, just get any transactions you need to send confirmed before the mandatory signaling height and monitor the situation for at least a few hours when mandatory signaling begins. If you are running Bitcoin Core, your node will follow the heaviest valid chain and as long as you are neither mining nor transacting, a potential chain split would not negatively impact you.
In the first few hours you should be able to see whether BIP 110 suddenly got a huge increase in signaling. If the situation is unclear after a few hours, just lay back a little longer, I’m sure there will be plenty of discussion of what’s going on.
If you are running a lightning node, I would not recommend to depend on a BIP 110 node as your source for the blockchain. If the hashrate distribution stays somewhat similar to the current, BIP 110 nodes would likely fall behind and this could make you vulnerable to a channel being closed maliciously on you. If your node were to miss the unilateral close, it may fail to broadcast the justice transaction in time.
If you are mining, your choice is more complicated since you have an actual cost to mine, but your payout depends on the outcome. If you feel strongly about the outcome, you should mine in support for your preferred outcome. If you don’t feel strongly, you could either guess what you consider to emerge as the likely majority chain and mine that for higher revenue, or wait for a while until the dust settles to save your cost of mining.
So, in general, what should node runners be monitoring? Would one of the handful of major pools signaling immediately after the mandatory period begins be a sign to upgrade your node?