Author: Michael Gronager 2013-03-11 20:36:05
Published on: 2013-03-11T20:36:05+00:00
The discussion revolves around the issue of scalability of Bitcoin, particularly with respect to the size of the unspent transaction outputs (UTXO) set. The goal is to move from a peer-to-peer network where everyone stores, validates and verifies everything to a Distributed Hash Table (DHT) where the load can be shared. This way, a growing set of UTXO due to abuse/misuse or massive use can be accommodated by a properly designed DHT that should scale accordingly. However, if one worries about the size of the UTXO set, the current coin choosing algorithm can be changed to eliminate dust. The current algorithm tends to accumulate dust as it is on a different scale than real transactions and therefore is never included. Regarding the demurrage/escheatment road, while it makes sense economically, it would destroy confidence in Bitcoin. It would cost money to store an unspent transaction in the blockchain, but we can't prune it. Instead, Jeff's proposal to let an alt-coin implement this feature could be a better option. If Bitcoin ever reaches the point where it can't function without this functionality, it will be easier to make the transition.
Updated on: 2023-06-06T10:30:43.406777+00:00