Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] Block size following technological growth

From: Elliot Olds <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2015 13:09:58 -0700

On Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 7:58 AM, Mike Hearn via bitcoin-dev <
[email-masked]> wrote:
>
> But it is easier to find common ground with others by compromising. Is 8mb
> better than no limit? I don't know and I don't care much:
>

People seeing statements like this might imagine that if you knew a change
from 1MB blocks to 1GB blocks would ensure fees were 10 cents for the next
two years instead of 30 cents over the next two years, you'd want to roll
out 1GB blocks. Would you? Where is your cutoff? How large would you be
willing to make the block size in exchange for moving fees from 30 cents to
10 cents for the next two years? How about $3 to 10 cents? $30 to 10 cents?

How do you think Greg/Pieter/Wlad/Adam/Jorge would answer those questions?
I find it very hard to guess, but I think knowing how people would make
that specific tradeoff could be helpful in either starting a more
productive discussion, or at least realizing how far apart people are in
their weighing of the risks of large blocks vs. the benefits of low fees.

Obviously the assumption that we have this two year stability period is
unrealistic, but the hypothetical tells us how much of the disagreement
comes from "if we increase the block size to lower fees, the low fees won't
last" vs. "the low fees aren't worth it even if they last."