Author: Jeff Garzik 2015-06-26 17:57:42
Published on: 2015-06-26T17:57:42+00:00
Pieter Wuille, a Bitcoin Core developer, addressed a part of the block size debate that has been troubling him since the beginning. He disagrees with the idea that a fear for a change in economics should be considered to necessitate larger blocks. If it is, and there is consensus that we should adapt to it, then there is effectively no limit going forward. This could lead to market and software disruptions because the market and software - notably wallets - are not prepared for this. Wuille believes that inducing fee pressure is a delta, a change from years-long bitcoin economic policy. Inaction leads to consistent fee pressure as the months tick on and system volume grows; thus, inaction leads to economic policy change. Economic policy change leads to market and software disruption. Wuille thinks that if we want to change economic policy, that's fine. But we should be honest and admit that we are arguing for a change, a delta from current market expectations and behavior. It is critical to first deal with what _is_, not what you wish the world to be. You want a fee market to develop. There is nothing wrong with that desire. It remains a delta from where we are today, and that is critically relevant in a $3b+ market. Wuille believes that people say that larger blocks are necessary. In the long term, he agrees due to the evolution of systems that do not evolve tend to be replaced by other systems. This evolution can come in terms of layers on top of Bitcoin's blockchain, in terms of the technology underlying various aspects of the blockchain itself, and also in the scale that this technology supports. However, he fundamentally disagrees that a fear for a change in economics should be considered to necessitate larger blocks. If it is, and there is consensus that we should adapt to it, then there is effectively no limit going forward. Wuille thinks that systems that compete with Bitcoin in this space already offer orders of magnitude more capacity than we can reasonably achieve with any blockchain technology at this point. He believes that none of this is a reason why the size can't increase. However, in his opinion, we should do it because we believe it increases utility and understand the risks; not because we're afraid of what might happen if we don't hurry up. And from that point of view, it seems silly to make a huge increase at once.
Updated on: 2023-06-10T01:05:12.258660+00:00