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by fidelramos
1863 days ago
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I completely agree, increasing the maximum block size is the simplest way to scale. Bitcoin BTC refused to do that, keeping the 1 MiB maximum block size instituted by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2010 as a spam-prevention measure, which led to raising transaction fees as users compete for the scarce block space. That is also the reason why Bitcoin Cash BCH was born in August 2017: to raise the maximum block size and allow the Bitcoin blockchain to process more transactions per second while keeping fees low. At the technical level BCH has showed that the network is stable in production with 20 MiB blocks, but the goal and ongoing work is to support gigabyte and eventually terabyte blocks so it would scale to worldwide usage while keeping transaction fees low. The counterargument by Bitcoin BTC is that large blocks centralize the network, as not everyone can afford to run a full node. That's a different debate that I would be happy to discuss, but I want to start by pointing out that keeping the block size low also centralizes the network, as many users will not be able to afford the increasing transaction fees (which rose to $50 at recent times). Does it make sense to restrict the network so anyone can run a $50 node but not be able to transact on it? I think decentralization is a means to an end (electronic P2P cash), not a goal in itself. In other words, blockchains should be decentralized enough that no single entity can take control of the network, but too much decentralization is inefficient, so an equilibrium must be found. |
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I believe that is the hardest problem that bitcoin didn‘t solve. The hashrate is governed by the price and a arbitrary halving schedule. There is no mechanism to regulate the hashrate to a certain setpoint where attacking the network is not feasible. This issue becomes even more severe when the block reward is dominated by fees in the future. In that scenario the hashrate is not so much determined by the price anymore but the available block space and the utility of on-chain transactions. It is really hard to judge bitcoins security model considering all these variables. But for now the solution seems to be to vastly overcommit hashrate