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Segwit2x Bitcoin Fork Suspended

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Re: Segwit2x Bitcoin Fork Suspended

#112

I still don't really understand why people were so against a block size increase. I get that there are centralisation risks if the block size increases too much, but it doesn't really seem as though increasing to 2mb really make such a big difference? Am I missing something?

I think small blockers are concerned that short-term fixes like increasing the block size will cause long-term scaling solutions to never be developed, necessitating more and more short-term fixes.

Re: Segwit2x Bitcoin Fork Suspended

#113
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ethereum's value, its reason for existing, is the deployment and operation of smart contracts. When one of the most popular semi-complex smart contracts fails not once but twice in a matter of months (losing hundreds of millions USD in the process), it is time to look not at the newbie or the contract programmer, but the platform itself.

Ethereum works fine as a currency too (~15 sec per block, quite nice). It also works fine with simple contracts, it's the humans who aren't good enough (yet) to write bug-free code. Bugs in software of various kinds cause billions of dollars worth of damage, deaths too. Yet I don't see people claiming it's the fault of C++.

Yet I don't see people claiming it's the fault of C++

A major driving force behind the development of Rust is that exact claim.

Re: Segwit2x Bitcoin Fork Suspended

#114
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ethereum's value, its reason for existing, is the deployment and operation of smart contracts. When one of the most popular semi-complex smart contracts fails not once but twice in a matter of months (losing hundreds of millions USD in the process), it is time to look not at the newbie or the contract programmer, but the platform itself.

Ethereum works fine as a currency too (~15 sec per block, quite nice). It also works fine with simple contracts, it's the humans who aren't good enough (yet) to write bug-free code. Bugs in software of various kinds cause billions of dollars worth of damage, deaths too. Yet I don't see people claiming it's the fault of C++.

> I don't see people claiming it's the fault of C++.

You must be new here.

Re: Segwit2x Bitcoin Fork Suspended

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember seeing a chart that correlated botcoins price with it's Google search volume.

correlation != causation

I think that searching for Bitcoin is causally related to market demand for Bitcoin(i.e. the price).

Because if you want anything(like cheese or furnace filters), you'll then search for it on Google.

Re: Segwit2x Bitcoin Fork Suspended

#116
I guess this is one of the merits of proof-of-work: force miners to mine on one chain only, and if the token on the fork is worth less compared to their relative increase in hash rate on the fork, they lose money.

In my opinion, the financial motive of miners played a big role in this decision, and that’s exactly what proof-of-work is supposed to achieve: consensus through selfish miners.

Has anyone done the math on the profitability of Bitcoin Cash miners versus regular Bitcoin miners?

Re: Segwit2x Bitcoin Fork Suspended

#117

I still don't really understand why people were so against a block size increase. I get that there are centralisation risks if the block size increases too much, but it doesn't really seem as though increasing to 2mb really make such a big difference? Am I missing something?

There are no real technical arguments against increasing to 2MB, only political.

The main actors against a block size increase are Core developers who are also part of a company called Blockstream. Blockstream's business model is about selling side chains. But why use side chains if you can use on chain transactions instead? Well if you limit on chain scaling users would be forced on to your side chains...

The movement against the Segwit2x upgrade was so fierce precisely because it threatened to offset Core as the de facto Bitcoin client, making them loose their power.

They profit heavily from censorship on the bitcoin mailing list, the "bitcoin" subreddit and bitcoin.org. Their consistent propaganda and abuse has now caused the miners and businesses to back down on the Segwit2x upgrade, which would have been a certainty with 95% hashpower and business support.

Keep these things in mind and you should get a better picture.

Re: Segwit2x Bitcoin Fork Suspended

#118
post #14

So bitcoin went up because they were going to fork, and now it's going up again because they will not? k Edit: Otoh, looks like it's seeing a bit of a drop now, but I doubt it will hit the pre-anticipation levels.

What is interesting is that the BTC price went up on the email announcement and it started going down an hour later when coindesk released the news. I guess different type of investors/speculators read different news source ...

Re: Segwit2x Bitcoin Fork Suspended

#119
post #116

I guess this is one of the merits of proof-of-work: force miners to mine on one chain only, and if the token on the fork is worth less compared to their relative increase in hash rate on the fork, they lose money. In my opinion, the financial motive of miners played a big role in this decision, and that’s exactly what proof-of-work is supposed to achieve: consensus through selfish miners. Has anyone done the math on…

It's graphed in real time: https://fork.lol/

Re: Segwit2x Bitcoin Fork Suspended

#120
post #112

I still don't really understand why people were so against a block size increase. I get that there are centralisation risks if the block size increases too much, but it doesn't really seem as though increasing to 2mb really make such a big difference? Am I missing something?

I think small blockers are concerned that short-term fixes like increasing the block size will cause long-term scaling solutions to never be developed, necessitating more and more short-term fixes.

Which to me is just stupid - like taking 5 min to increase the blocksize is going to take away significant development effort from more novel solutions. Meanwhile, tx fees are stupidly high and bitcoin can't be used as a currency for small-ish transactions.
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