Author: Mark Friedenbach 2015-06-26 18:31:43
Published on: 2015-06-26T18:31:43+00:00
The debate around block size limits in Bitcoin has been ongoing for some time, with Jeff Garzik arguing that limits large enough to prevent fee pressure are unsustainable. He suggests that we are already running against technological limits in the tradeoff between decentralization and utility, and that increases of the block size limit in advance of fee pressure only delay the problem and cannot solve it. Instead, he believes that we must be careful to use the block size limit now to get infrastructure to support a world with full blocks while still having a little room to grow fast if things unexpectedly break.On the other hand, Pieter Wuille argues that people seem to want larger blocks because they believe they are necessary, but he disagrees that a fear for a change in economics should be considered to necessitate larger blocks. He thinks that if there is consensus that we should adapt to it, then there is effectively no limit going forward. Wuille believes that the reason for an increase in block size should be because of higher utility, not a fear of economic change. He suggests that demand for payments is nearly infinite, and only a small portion of it will eventually fit on a blockchain. Furthermore, 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.Garzik argues that 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. The market and software - notably wallets - is not prepared for this. If you wait until the need to increase block size is acute, it is already too late. Businesses have permanently shelved plans to use bitcoin, and change at that point produces larger disruption to the fee market. Hard forks require planning many months in advance.Overall, the two sides present different views on the issue of block size limits in Bitcoin. Garzik believes that increases are necessary to prevent economic policy change and market disruption, while Wuille argues that the focus should be on higher utility rather than fear of change. Both sides agree that planning and careful consideration are essential in making any changes to the current system.
Updated on: 2023-06-10T01:06:04.000232+00:00