Bitcoin block reward is halving in less than 2 hours • Hacker News Board

Re: Bitcoin block reward is halving in less than 2 hours

#21

Post by wolfgke » Sun, Jul 10, 2016, 12:22 AM UTC

Natanael_L wrote: post #20

wolfgke wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No, hashrate majority can only introduce "soft" restrictions, not remove any hardcoded ones. If there really is a strong wish from the majority to increase the maximum number of bitcoins, I see no technical reason why one couldn't implement a solution on the blockchain for this. Just, say, introduce some marker in the block indicating that this block follows a new block format that allows larger coin numbers than t…

That's why there's a version tag in blocks. This would be a hardfork event where all clients must switch simultaneously to the new block format and rules.

> This would be a hardfork event where all clients must switch simultaneously to the new block format and rules.

Indeed, but a hard fork is possible (cf. debate about block size). There actually just good "social-economic" reasons not to do a hard fork, but nothing in the Bitcoin technology prevents them.

Re: Bitcoin block reward is halving in less than 2 hours

#22

Post by Evolved » Sun, Jul 10, 2016, 1:14 AM UTC

Natanael_L wrote: post #18

overcast wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this statement correct? What's the point of a limited number of coins, if they can be split infinitely? That's no different than the government printing money.

You don't get more pizza when you slice it in smaller pieces.

Obligatory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtQa13u6mYM

Re: Bitcoin block reward is halving in less than 2 hours

#23

Post by nadaviv » Sun, Jul 10, 2016, 3:47 PM UTC

dublinben wrote: post #13

JoshTriplett wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The smallest transmissible unit of Bitcoin is the "satoshi", which is one hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin. However, if the value of one satoshi ever grew large enough that people wanted to subdivide it, it'd be possible to migrate to a smaller division by consensus, by adding support in miners and clients, advertising that support without using it, and migrating when enough of those advertised the support.

That's a pretty big "if." There is currently a crisis over block size that has failed to reach any consensus. It's unlikely that any fundamental feature of Bitcoin will ever be allowed to change.

There is no crisis, consensus for the block size debate was reached quite a long time ago. The development community is in final stages of testing and QA for segregated witness, which would ~double the capacity of the network.

Also, I would not consider the divisibility of bitcoins as a fundamental feature of Bitcoin. Compared to the block size debate (which has effects on the decentralization of the network), divisibility is a pretty straightforward change that has little (none?) drawbacks and should reach consensus pretty easily.

Re: Bitcoin block reward is halving in less than 2 hours

#24

Post by nadaviv » Sun, Jul 10, 2016, 3:48 PM UTC

danielmo wrote: post #5

thesumofall wrote: post #2

The site says that 75% of all bitcoins have already been mined. I understand that it will become more and more difficult ensuring that the amount of money will continue to increase. However, I remember that I once read that bitcoins can only be split into so many "pieces" which wouldn't be enough to provide a sufficient amount of money for the economy to function. Does anyone know more? Edit: found the answer: The pr…

A single bitcoin can be split infinitely -- it's just a matter of adjusting the number of decimal points. Currently, a satoshi amounts to a millionth of a Bitcoin. If a Satoshi becomes more valuable, there may be more decimal points added.

> satoshi amounts to a millionth of a Bitcoin

One satoshi is one hundred-millionth of a bitcoin, not a millionth of a bitcoin.

Re: Bitcoin block reward is halving in less than 2 hours

#25

Post by JoshTriplett » Sun, Jul 10, 2016, 7:55 PM UTC

nadaviv wrote: post #23

dublinben wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a pretty big "if." There is currently a crisis over block size that has failed to reach any consensus. It's unlikely that any fundamental feature of Bitcoin will ever be allowed to change.

There is no crisis, consensus for the block size debate was reached quite a long time ago. The development community is in final stages of testing and QA for segregated witness, which would ~double the capacity of the network. Also, I would not consider the divisibility of bitcoins as a fundamental feature of Bitcoin. Compared to the block size debate (which has effects on the decentralization of the network), divisi…

> The development community is in final stages of testing and QA for segregated witness, which would ~double the capacity of the network.

A factor of two or four doesn't really solve the problem, it just puts off the problem. (The same thing goes for minor block size changes, really.) What will happen when the network needs 100x capacity?

Re: Bitcoin block reward is halving in less than 2 hours

#26

Post by gnaritas » Wed, Jul 13, 2016, 10:57 PM UTC

JoshTriplett wrote: post #25

nadaviv wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no crisis, consensus for the block size debate was reached quite a long time ago. The development community is in final stages of testing and QA for segregated witness, which would ~double the capacity of the network. Also, I would not consider the divisibility of bitcoins as a fundamental feature of Bitcoin. Compared to the block size debate (which has effects on the decentralization of the network), divisi…

> The development community is in final stages of testing and QA for segregated witness, which would ~double the capacity of the network. A factor of two or four doesn't really solve the problem, it just puts off the problem. (The same thing goes for minor block size changes, really.) What will happen when the network needs 100x capacity?

It solves it for now, which tends to be how democracies solve problems, which is what bitcoin is. Fixing it permanently is how an engineer thinks, but that style of thinking doesn't work in a consensus network full of non-engineers. Kicking the can down the road is inherent to community based solutions.