Author: Danny Thorpe 2015-06-13 22:20:28
Published on: 2015-06-13T22:20:28+00:00
A user named Danny has asked why Bitcoin users should have a say in block size limits, as it is the miners and node operators who bear the burden of managing large blocks. Peter Todd responds by explaining that users can influence the miner vote through a mechanism within the protocol. This can be done by providing a way for transactions to set a flag determining whether or not they can be included in a block casting a specific vote. The vote can be simplified to either increase or decrease the block size by a fixed ratio (e.g. 2x or 1/2x) using an nVersion bit. Transactions may only be included in blocks with identical votes, thus providing miners with a monetary incentive via fees to vote according to user wishes. Todd also suggests defining an additional bit or signing the transaction with both versions to cast a "don't care" vote. Additionally, different versions with different fees can be broadcasted via a mechanism such as replace-by-fee. He also provides a link to John Dillon's proposal for proof-of-stake block size voting.
Updated on: 2023-06-09T22:57:04.915579+00:00