Author: Patrick Sharp 2017-09-25 21:54:16
Published on: 2017-09-25T21:54:16+00:00
Patrick Sharp, a recent computer science graduate, has proposed an idea for the Bitcoin protocol that involves trimming and demurrage. He acknowledges that these ideas are not new but believes they need to be formally proposed. While he is aware that demurrage is a prohibited change, he contests this notion. He argues that without the ability to limit the maximum length or size of the blockchain, it becomes unsustainable in the long run and more centralized as it grows unwieldy.Sharp proposes limiting the blockchain's length to either 2^18 blocks (slightly less than five years) or 2^19 blocks (slightly less than ten years). Each time a block is mined, the oldest block(s) beyond this limit would be trimmed from the chain, and its unspent transactions could be included in the reward of the mined block. This would keep the costs of miners balanced with the costs of users and prevent the blockchain from becoming too large.While this proposal may have some friction, Sharp believes it is applicable to the entire community and is in the best interest of miners. He asks for thoughts and suggestions from the community and believes this is the next step in the evolution of Bitcoin to ensure immortality.
Updated on: 2023-05-20T04:01:22.377142+00:00