Ask HN: What is your opinion on the Bitcoin debate?

#1

Post by thomasDE » Mon, Apr 10, 2017, 2:35 PM UTC

There is currently a large debate going on in the bitcoin world. The main development team of bitcoin wants to keep the current block size limit and wants to enable off-chain scaling (via "segwit"). Other developers are pushing for bigger blocks ("bitcoin unlimited", BU) to allow on-chain scaling.

I'm currently favoring BU, but I would be okay with segwit if that would not mean that there will be no further block size increase. Would like to hear your thoughts on the topic.

Re: Ask HN: What is your opinion on the Bitcoin debate?

#2

Post by shea256 » Mon, Apr 10, 2017, 2:45 PM UTC

SegWit does in fact represent a block size increase. Here are some of my thoughts on the matter: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14075274

Re: Ask HN: What is your opinion on the Bitcoin debate?

#3

Post by thomasDE » Mon, Apr 10, 2017, 3:03 PM UTC

shea256 wrote: post #2

SegWit does in fact represent a block size increase. Here are some of my thoughts on the matter: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14075274

Well, okay, it "represents" a block size increase, so that you can put ~70% more transactions into a block. In reality, it is not a block size increase as the block size will stay at 1MB.

But I don't think that this is enough long term. I would much prefer an increase to 4MB or even 8MB.

Re: Ask HN: What is your opinion on the Bitcoin debate?

#4

Post by joth » Tue, Apr 11, 2017, 9:25 PM UTC

thomasDE wrote: post #3

shea256 wrote: post #2

SegWit does in fact represent a block size increase. Here are some of my thoughts on the matter: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14075274

Well, okay, it "represents" a block size increase, so that you can put ~70% more transactions into a block. In reality, it is not a block size increase as the block size will stay at 1MB. But I don't think that this is enough long term. I would much prefer an increase to 4MB or even 8MB.

Long term 4MB or 8MB (or even 32GB) won't be enough. SegWit enables more sophisticated scaling solutions necessary if Bitcoin wants to become anything more than money for a selected few enthusiast.