Author: Matt Corallo 2015-06-18 19:24:14
Published on: 2015-06-18T19:24:14+00:00
The conversation between Alex Morcos and Gavin Andresen on June 18, 2015, discussed the issue of code changes to Bitcoin Core that do not change consensus and changes to the consensus rules. While it is up to individual users to decide what code they run and what rules they enforce, there should be no changes to the consensus rules unless there is near complete agreement among the entire community, including users, developers, businesses, and miners. This principle is essential for Bitcoin, or any money, as it gives it value and makes it work.Gavin Andresen disagreed with the idea of "pretty much everybody" agreeing to a change in the consensus rules since status quo bias is a powerful thing. He believed that clear super-majority of people and businesses who use Bitcoin the most would be a suitable criterion to implement changes. Andresen also suspected that resistance to bigger blocks was coming from contributors worried about being unable to keep up with a larger blockchain due to their home network connections or old raspberry pi machines.Wladimir, all other committers besides Gavin, and almost all other developers on Core would defer to waiting for the outcome of #2 before considering any code changes to Core that do change consensus. Andresen was wondering if there were any successful open-source projects that didn't have either a Benevolent Dictator or some clear voting process to resolve disputes that cannot be settled with rough consensus.
Updated on: 2023-05-19T20:46:28.323854+00:00