Author: Matt Corallo 2015-05-06 23:41:37
Published on: 2015-05-06T23:41:37+00:00
In a discussion between Tier Nolan and Matt Corallo, the latter explains that the hard block size limit is in place to prevent miners from using their blocks to launch various attacks on the network. Corallo argues that the incentives for miners to pick block sizes are not compatible with maintaining a decentralized network. Nolan counters that miners can always reduce the block size if they coordinate. However, setting the hard-fork limit higher would allow for a soft fork to adjust the limit in the future. Corallo notes that the fact that the reference client may accept blocks above the soft limit for wallet purposes does not constitute an actual policy. He points out that most miners already apply their own patches to Bitcoin Core, so applying one more is not difficult. Additionally, when block space becomes limited, there would be an incentive for miners to change their behavior quickly to avoid leaving any fees on the table. Corallo also highlights that the vast majority of hash power is concentrated among large miners who have little decentralization pressure. This creates incompatible incentives, as the large miners would have an incentive to interconnect in a private network and generate only maximum-size blocks, resulting in strong centralization pressure in the network.
Updated on: 2023-05-19T20:09:54.589456+00:00