Author: Ben Thompson 2017-05-03 21:43:16
Published on: 2017-05-03T21:43:16+00:00
A proposal was made on the bitcoin-dev mailing list suggesting that full nodes should advertise a bitcoin address for users who need to download the blockchain from it. Users can be encouraged to send a tip to the peers that served them (by % served) and a recommended tip of 10mbit should suffice. However, some people may find this a barrier to hosting their own full node as they would have to pay $15 just to get a copy of the blockchain. The proposal suggests that full nodes can require a tip to download the blockchain, but if they do, users who don't specify a tip cannot use them. In the long term, this proposal aims to cause stable nodes to stick around longer and discourage "installation spam" attacks on the network. Fees for other node operations can be considered if this is successful. However, it is argued that adding a cost to the blockchain could lead to centralization as most users are likely to download the blockchain from a node that does not enforce a tip requirement.
Updated on: 2023-06-12T00:36:31.460629+00:00