Author: Matthew Mitchell 2012-09-11 21:48:43
Published on: 2012-09-11T21:48:43+00:00
In an email conversation on September 11, 2012, Gregory Maxwell questioned the value of a proposal to reduce the size of bitcoin transactions. The proposal suggested removing inventory vectors, which would save space and make it easier to store more transactions in each block. However, Maxwell was skeptical of the usefulness of this idea for very large blocks, arguing that it would require sending redundant tree data. Furthermore, he argued that the scarcity of block space is what makes bitcoin attractive and economically sane, as it prevents the network from becoming too bloated. He suggested that instead of changing the protocol, people could use off-chain transactions denominated in bitcoin. This would involve creating distributed cryptographic banks that maintain trust through Open Transaction contracts, which contain proof of agreement. However, the proposal's author argued that these banks would make bitcoin useless and suggested that if bitcoin cannot scale, it may be worth looking at other solutions.
Updated on: 2023-06-06T07:11:06.498936+00:00