Author: Eric Lombrozo 2015-06-15 00:55:07
Published on: 2015-06-15T00:55:07+00:00
Eric Lombrozo, a Bitcoin developer, has stated that the real issue with scalability is not complexity but validation cost. The "n" in O(n) here does not represent block size - it represents the size of the entire block chain for every new validator that must be synchronized. This means there is no way to construct short proofs without requiring the validator to maintain the complete system state. A full validator that goes offline even for a short period of time takes a while to fully catch up to the rest of the network. Satoshi's SPV is not a real solution and still doesn't scale all that well. Eric suggests that algorithmic improvements will be needed. Adam Back, another Bitcoin developer, believes that much of the industry is built on web 2.0 technology using bitcoin via a library in a web scripting language, often with consensus bugs, and even outsourcing and not even running their own full node which weakens privacy and complicate client implementations substantially. Companies need to care about scaling and invest in the integration and coding implied to improve their products scalability as there is no scalable and safe way to do it without this work. A hard-fork takes a long period of time to deploy due to the non-upgrade risk, people are working on things in the meantime. There can be a case for some increase to create some breathing room to work on scaling and decentralising tech.
Updated on: 2023-06-09T23:05:52.571011+00:00