Author: Mike Hearn 2015-06-01 18:01:53
Published on: 2015-06-01T18:01:53+00:00
Increasing the block size of Bitcoin can cause problems for old clients, as they may not understand the difference between a 1MB and 8MB out payment. However, SPV wallets don't face this issue because they have the same security and protocol as before. Fully validating wallets can also be updated with a small code change. If an old client makes a payment that is only confirmed in an extension block, the wallet will think the payment is unconfirmed and display it to the user forever. There seems to be a misunderstanding about the argument regarding huge blocks and data centers. It was Satoshi who argued for this, not the person being addressed. The writer of the message had previously written the scalability page for Bitcoin in 2011, which states that the core network can scale to much higher transaction rates assuming nodes are primarily running on high-end servers. By "much higher rates," the author meant VISA scale, and by "high end server," they meant high-end by today's standards, not tomorrow's. They did not believe that we would reach VISA scale anytime soon, barring some currently unimagined killer app. The author feels that people have been putting words in their mouth.
Updated on: 2023-06-09T22:02:24.237368+00:00