Author: mm-studios 2022-11-08 16:31:15
Published on: 2022-11-08T16:31:15+00:00
On October 19, 2022, a developer proposed an idea to increase throughput in the Bitcoin network by allowing miners to include transactions until the block is filled. This structure was coined as "Brick." Once Brick B0 is fully filled with transactions, it would be broadcasted and nodes would have it on in a separate fork as usual. At this point, instead of discarding transactions, the miner would start working on a new brick B1, linked with B0 as usual. Nodes would allow incoming regular blocks and bricks with hashes that do not satisfy the difficulty rule, provided the brick is fully filled of transactions. Bricks not fully filled would be rejected as invalid to prevent spam. The current Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm consists of finding a valid hash for the block by comparing the numeric value of the block hash with a protocol-defined value difficulty. Once a miner finds a nonce for the block that satisfies the condition, the new block becomes valid and can be propagated. All nodes would update their blockchains with it. With this background information, reduced settlement speed is considered a desirable feature that does not need fixing. The focus should be on layer 2 protocols that allow the ability to hold & transfer uncommitted transactions as pools/joins so that layer 1's decentralization and incentives can remain undisturbed.In response to the proposal, one developer mentions layers adding fees to users, which is true for systems where abuse is controlled by fees. Additionally, they discuss two critical factors: A) to not increase the workload of full-nodes and B) to not undermine L2 systems like LN. Validating nodes do not compete with PoW, and it can't be said that consumers (blockchain builders) are satisfactorily distributed, but it's true about miners(block producers), who form a quite centralized subsystem with only a handful major pools producing blocks.Finally, developers are building L3 projects like TARO and RGB on lightning with less risk, which is considered vastly superior in terms of layered financial systems. The idea proposed by the developer could flush mempools, keep transaction fees low and increase throughput without increasing the block size that would raise other concerns related to propagation. However, the proposal requires changes in the PoW algorithm, and a better calculus shall be defined.
Updated on: 2023-06-16T02:14:53.286664+00:00