Author: Luke Dashjr 2017-01-27 04:14:16
Published on: 2017-01-27T04:14:16+00:00
In an email thread on January 27, 2017, Bitcoin Core developer, Luke Dashjr, proposed a reduction in block size to 300KB. Responding to criticism from Andrew Johnson about the proposal, Dashjr clarified that such a drop would only occur if it activates before April 2017. Dashjr believes that this is unlikely, as it requires the consensus of a hardfork, followed by a software release and actual activation by miners using BIP9. Dashjr further explained that this reduction would be good for the network in the long-term because 300K is necessary to maintain the current IBD costs even with technological improvements. Johnson argued that the network was already at capacity and that a block size limit reduction is not needed. Dashjr disagreed, stating that the network is only at capacity due to space being available below actual costs and/or because efficient alternatives are not yet widely supported. He went on to explain that a reduction in block size could squeeze out spam and unsustainable microtransaction use, while the volume which actually benefits from the blockchain's security should continue along fine. Dashjr expects that microtransactions will gain a huge improvement in efficiency once Lightning is widely implemented and thus reduce legitimate usage of block sizes well below 300k naturally.Finally, Dashjr addressed concerns about his previous promise to increase the block size limit via a hard fork. He did not mention the HK "roundtable" in his proposal, as he did not want to interpret it as some kind of slap in the face of the honest participants of that discussion. In conclusion, this proposal is the best solution currently available that meets the hard criteria outlined at Hong Kong a year ago. Continued work on the MMHF/SHF concept may eventually deliver a better solution, but it is not yet ready.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T21:16:03.765669+00:00