Author: Peter Todd 2013-02-14 06:39:01
Published on: 2013-02-14T06:39:01+00:00
In a hypothetical scenario set in the year 2043, Gregory Maxwell wrote about the continued existence and widespread use of Bitcoin, which has overcome the Y2038 problem. Off-chain systems like fidelity bonded banks are also thriving and providing scalable, instant, and private transactions to millions of people. However, Maxwell notes that trustworthy bonded banks require the maximum block size to be kept limited to ensure security. Even if one does not create any transactions on the chain, they still need to keep watch on the chain to track what the bank is doing. With 1MiB blocks, this is practical on smartphones with wireless internet connectivity, but with 1GiB blocks, it becomes difficult to manage without trusting relatively few nodes with the hardware to handle the blockchain. Additionally, the UTXO proposals could potentially help, but they will need to be sophisticated and will take a long time to develop and deploy. Without such measures, large blocks force users to trust miners blindly, making certain valuable applications impossible.
Updated on: 2023-06-06T10:03:16.453687+00:00