Historically, Bitcoin used thresholds like 95% miner signaling for certain soft fork deployments. Once enough miners set a ‘support bit’ in their blocks, the upgrade was ‘locked in,’ and the network enforced new rules.

While this can coordinate activation smoothly, it also sparked debate over whether miners wield too much power in deciding upgrades. Alternatives include user-activated soft forks, where node operators set the rules. Regardless, a deployment threshold is a common mechanism for phased rollouts, minimizing disruptions and chain splits, provided there’s broad consensus.