Author: Dave Hudson 2015-05-07 11:55:49
Published on: 2015-05-07T11:55:49+00:00
The email discusses the issue of increasing the block size and the potential consequences of not doing so by the end of the winter growth season. The author argues that the success or failure of any decision will depend on the reaction of miners, who are largely controlled by large companies with investors expecting to see returns. The trend towards larger mean block sizes has been slowing down for several months, but the total number of transactions is still rising. If all blocks become 1MB then transaction confirmation times will increase significantly, and there are concerns about the security implications for larger blocks. There is also a looming problem for miners at the next block reward halving, and if fees do not increase meaningfully then many may have to leave the network, further increasing centralisation risks. The author suggests that more negligible fee transactions might motivate some large fraction of miners to start clamping block sizes or rejecting transactions below a certain fee threshold, which could lead to artificial scarcity. Finally, the author notes that there are many unknowns in this debate, including the impact of increased block size on the use of the blockchain and whether zero-fee transactions will move to a third-party solution.
Updated on: 2023-06-09T19:31:26.045278+00:00