Author: Justus Ranvier 2014-04-07 15:45:55
Published on: 2014-04-07T15:45:55+00:00
Mike Hearn, a prominent Bitcoin developer, expressed concern over the decreasing number of nodes on the Bitcoin network. In February 2014, there were 10,000 Bitcoin nodes; at present, there are only 8,500 and still falling. He explained that people might stop running a node due to different reasons such as disk space, bandwidth, lost interest, etc. Hearn suggested that it would be convenient if the subVer contained the operating system, so they could tell whether the bleed was mostly from desktops/laptops (Windows/Mac) or from virtual servers (Linux). However, according to Hearn, there are three things happening now that have nothing to do with operating systems. First, the resource requirements of a full node are moving beyond the capabilities of casual users. Second, the growth of small and medium-sized native Bitcoin businesses is lagging behind. Native here means their revenue and expenses are both denominated in BTC. Contributing to this is the fact that Bitcoin Core can't be accurately described as "enterprise ready." Third, the P2P protocol used by the network is broken from an incentive perspective. Resource usage wouldn't be a problem as long as the users who consume resources pay for them, and the users who provide resources are compensated. Right now, there is no obvious way to incorporate price discovery for bandwidth usage or storage space without a completely new P2P protocol.
Updated on: 2023-06-08T18:49:58.626734+00:00