Author: Bram Cohen 2016-12-11 01:07:06
Published on: 2016-12-11T01:07:06+00:00
The proposal of managing Bitcoin's block size the same way as difficulty has been discussed by miners and developers. Miners are naturally incentivized to always mine max size blocks to maximize transaction fees, but they also have an incentive to collectively cooperate to reduce throughput to make more money as a group. Therefore, under schemes where limits can be adjusted, both possibilities must be taken into account. The proposed system, named Block75, suggests adjusting the maximum block size every two weeks (2016 blocks) using a system similar to how difficulty is calculated. The target capacity over 2016 blocks would be 75%. If the last 2016 blocks are more than 75% full, add the difference to the max block size. This method attempts to keep blocks at 75% total capacity over each two week period, the same way difficulty tries to keep blocks mined every ten minutes, while also keeping blocks as small as possible. However, critics argue that there has to be a maximum block size that the network will allow as a consensus rule and increasing it dynamically based on transaction volume will reach a point where it will break things. Additionally, the system as described can also be gamed by filling the network with transactions, which increases block propagation time and orphan rate.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T20:49:50.354910+00:00