This guide advocates the approach of consensus before consensus; namely that it is important to establish social consensus in favour of a change prior to changing the consensus code that will make the change reality.

The process of establishing social consensus is split into four stages:

Research and Development Power User Exploration Industry Evaluation Investor Review Once social consensus is established and robust via completion of each of these phases, it is comparatively straightforward to then deploy the consensus code changes, giving the final two phases:

Finalization Activation This guide considers participants in Bitcoin’s consensus process to be divided into a variety of roles, which are described in more detail in the Roles page.