Published on: 2011-06-14T17:14:21+00:00
Bitcoin developer Mike Hearn has raised concerns about the scalability limitations caused by increasing block sizes and flood control. He suggests that the current 10mb flood control limit is causing issues, as block sizes have once again grown large. During testing, Hearn was disconnected due to surpassing the limit, with an average of 20kb per block at 500 blocks potentially causing this problem. This poses a serious scalability issue for the system.To address this limitation, Hearn proposes two solutions. The first is to raise the flood control limit, allowing for larger block sizes. The second solution involves raising the limit while simultaneously decreasing the batch size. However, both options come with drawbacks. Increasing the limit may lead to an internal buffer memory explosion, while lowering the batch size could slow down chain download speed in high latency environments.Hearn acknowledges that the current P2P code is not equipped to handle large downloads, and further development is necessary to resolve this issue. Jeff Garzik agrees with Hearn's concerns, acknowledging that the P2P code was not designed to handle such large amounts of streaming data.In summary, the growing block sizes and flood control limitations are causing scalability issues in the Bitcoin system. Hearn suggests raising the flood control limit or simultaneously adjusting the batch size to address this problem. However, further development is needed to handle large downloads in the current P2P code. Hearn is requesting input and thoughts on how to best address this issue.
Updated on: 2023-08-01T01:58:55.786684+00:00