Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] A Proposed Compromise to the Block Size Limit

From: Peter Todd <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2015 14:47:51 -0400

On Sat, Jun 27, 2015 at 02:02:05PM -0400, Jameson Lopp wrote:
> > For Bitcoin to have O(n) scaling you have to assume that the number of
> > validation nodes doesn't scale with the number of users, thus resulting
> > in a system where users trust others to do validation for them. That is
> > not a global consensus system; that's a trust-based system.
> >
> >
> Why does it matter what the "total work" of the network is? Anyone who is
> participating as a node on the network only cares about the resources
> required to run their own node, not the resources everyone else needs to
> run their nodes.
> 
> Also, no assumption needed, it is quite clear that the number of nodes is
> not scaling along with the number of users. If anything it appears to be
> inversely proportional.

Which is a huge problem.

Concretely, what O(n^2) scaling means is that the more Bitcoin is
adopted, the harder it is to use in a decentralized way that doesn't
trust others; the blocksize limit puts a cap on how centralized Bitcoin
can get in a given technological landscape.

-- 
'peter'[:-1]@petertodd.org
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