Author: Alex Morcos 2015-08-08 23:05:29
Published on: 2015-08-08T23:05:29+00:00
The email thread discusses the issue of insufficient block space and its potential impact on Bitcoin. Dave Scotese suggests either lowering or leaving the block size where it is, as running out of space with a low block size would cause problems that should be addressed sooner rather than later. He argues that raising the block size would delay these problems until Bitcoin becomes larger and more important, causing more pressure. Scotese believes that backlogs are not a significant issue, as they train users to wait for at least one confirmation or go off-chain. He thinks that increasing fees due to full blocks will motivate people to increase the limit, and he proposes having a solution ready before the problem arises. Scotese also notes that starting from scratch is the most significant reason why people do not run a full node, and he has some ideas on how to postpone being "full" but still be operational, involving bonded representation of essential data. These ideas build upon the Lightning paper, and if done correctly, the network could know whether someone is honest and enforce the bond if they are not. In response to Thomas Zander's concerns about saying "no" to new customers due to off-chain transactions failing to produce a properly working alternative, Adam Back points out that over 99% of Bitcoin transactions are already off-chain. He also states that there are already multiple competing companies offering services with off-chain settlement, which are simple and rapid to adapt and scale compared to Bitcoin's protocol. Back believes that we can even do off-chain at scale with Bitcoin similar trust-minimization with lightning, and duplex payment channels. He thinks that it would be useful to work on an interoperability standard and API for such off-chain services to be accessed by wallets, with periodic on-chain inter-service netting.
Updated on: 2023-06-10T18:31:25.741341+00:00