Published on: 2017-07-17T22:04:49+00:00
In a recent email exchange between David A. Harding and Paul Sztorc, the possibility of a document gaining traction on BitcoinCore.org was discussed. Paul expressed that without interest from the maintainers of bitcoincore.org, the document will probably be unable to gain traction. David responded by stating that if Paul wants his document to appear on the website, he should open a PR and offered to help format the document for the website. The maintainers of BitcoinCore.org ultimately decide if the standard has been met. Paul appreciated David's response and stated that he would make opening a PR to BitcoinCore.org with David's statement a priority so that future confusion can be avoided.In another discussion about adding new ideas to the Bitcoin roadmap, Alex Morcos and Peter Todd agreed that caution is necessary. Todd used his own Treechains work as an example of an idea that generated excitement but proved more difficult to implement than anticipated. He emphasized the importance of proper security peer review. Paul Sztorc proposed updating the existing Core Scalability Roadmap created in December 2015. The roadmap succeeded in synchronizing the entire Bitcoin community and getting everyone back to work. However, since the roadmap is now 19 months old, it is quite obsolete and needs to be replaced. The new roadmap would remove what has been accomplished, introduce new innovations and approaches, and update deadlines and projections. It includes technologies that increase Bitcoin's maximum tps rate or make it easier to process a higher volume of transactions.The technical community has completed a number of items on the Dec 2015 roadmap such as VersionBits (BIP 9), Compact Blocks (BIP 152), and Check Sequence Verify (BIP 112). Segregated Witness (BIP 141) and Lightning Network have been completed and await activation. Schnorr Signature Aggregation has been implemented in draft form in libsecp256k1, and drivechain is currently under peer review and may be usable by the end of 2017. Alex Morcos expressed concern about adding relatively new/untested ideas like Drivechain to the roadmap. Paul updated the roadmap to a "forecast" and edited the drivechain part to emphasize mainchain space being freed as defectors leave for an alt-chain.The Bitcoin community is exploring various scaling technologies including Segregated Witness, Lightning Network, Schnorr signature aggregation, MimbleWimble's shrinking block history, and drivechains. However, these technologies may not be sufficient to solve Bitcoin's scalability problem, and a hard fork to increase block size may be necessary. The proposed roadmap is still in draft form and feedback from the community is requested. A Google Doc link is available for those interested.In July 2017, Paul Sztorc proposed updating the Core Scalability Roadmap. The older statement from Dec 2015 endorsed a belief that "the community is ready to deliver on its shared vision that addresses the needs of the system while upholding its values". However, the shared vision has grown sharper over the last 18 months. According to Paul, it's necessary to revise it: remove what has been accomplished, introduce new innovations and approaches, and update deadlines and projections. The roadmap helped synchronize the entire Bitcoin community, bringing finality to the conversations of that time and getting everyone back to work. However, the Dec 2015 roadmap is now 19 months old and needs to be replaced.The new roadmap includes technologies that increase Bitcoin's maximum tps rate or make it easier to process a higher volume of transactions. Several items on the Dec 2015 roadmap have been completed, such as VersionBits (BIP 9), Compact Blocks (BIP 152), and Check Sequence Verify (BIP 112). Segregated Witness (BIP 141) and Lightning Network are complete and await activation. Schnorr Signature Aggregation has been implemented in draft form and drivechain is currently under peer review. If the capacity improvements outlined are insufficient, a hard fork may be necessary to increase block size. The document has been uploaded to GitHub for comments and expressions of interest.Paul Sztorc suggested updating the Core Scalability Roadmap. Greg Maxwell, the author of the original roadmap, has expressed regret and NACK'ed the concept. Tom Zander also did not ACK it due to its labeling as a "Bitcoin" document instead of a specific project document. The draft has been uploaded to GitHub and updated based on feedback received. However, without interest from the maintainers of bitcoincore.org, the document will probably be unable to gain traction.Paul Sztorc provided his reasons for updating the roadmap, stating that it synchronized the entire Bitcoin community and brought finality to the conversations of that time, getting everyone back to work. He emphasized the fatal scaling problem of the scaling conversation itself. The new roadmap updates the previous roadmap, includes technologies to increase capacity and scalability, and emphasizes concrete numbers and dates.
Updated on: 2023-08-01T21:22:14.169550+00:00