Author: Ryan J Martin 2017-01-10 04:14:55
Published on: 2017-01-10T04:14:55+00:00
The concept of an adaptive or automatic block size has been around for some time, however, concerns have been raised that this approach may not consider the optimal economic equilibrium for transaction fees and size. An auto-adjusting size limit could create unforeseen externalities for miners and users, as miners may decide to mine very small blocks to constrict supply and increase marginal fees. On the other side, all miners might set minrelaytxfee at zero and users may push the blocks to larger and larger sizes causing higher latency and network issues. To address these concerns, an auto-adjusting limit would require solid code with a social benefit model built in to adjust to an equilibrium that optimizes maximizes benefits while minimizing costs for both sides via a Marshallian surplus model. Meanwhile, a proposal called Block75 suggests adjusting the maximum block size based on the average percentage fullness of the last 2016 blocks. The proposal maintains blocks as small as possible, allows for growth, and keeps transaction fees at a level similar to May/June 2016. This approach is expected to alter the max block size in such a way that keeps blocks 75% full, while accounting for a substantial increase in transactions in the last quarter of 2017 and changes brought about by SegWit. However, this is just an estimate and if anyone has an alternate way to model future behavior, they are encouraged to run it through the Block75 algorithm.
Updated on: 2023-05-20T00:34:37.945352+00:00