[jafaku]

No single entity controls it, but that doesn't mean you can do whatever you want. If someone is abusing the blockchain by bloating it with useless garbage, there will be consensus for fixing that. So don't build a business or technology around abusing Bitcoin's blockchain, because you will be left out.

[vbezhenar]

Why not set clear rules? 1 byte of blockchain costs XXX millibitcoins. You like it — you use it. You don't like it — you don't use it. It's clear that if anyone can use blockchain as information storage, someone WILL do it, now or later. I think it's better to set the rules sooner than fix things later when they are out of control.

[gojomo]

It's tough to set any simple firm rules that maintain the right incentives, because (roughly) each byte incurs costs on every node storing/verifying the blockchain, while any set one-time fee can only be collected by some subset of those nodes up-front.

Thus you can expect continuing push-and-pull negotiations, perhaps requiring a separate system of continued payments, if you really want indefinite, reliable, unalterable storage.

[dragonwriter]

Don't bitcoin transaction fees provide a means to handle that without resort to fixed centralized policy?

[jafaku]

No, because the miner who gets the fee isn't the only one who will have to work extra. All full nodes will have to relay and store that transaction. And there is no known way to pay full node operators in a way that can't be abused.