Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] Bitcoin Core and hard forks

From: Jorge Timón <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2015 20:12:33 +0200

On Thu, Jul 23, 2015 at 1:42 AM, Cory Fields via bitcoin-dev
<[email-masked]> wrote:
> I'm not sure why Bitcoin Core and the rules and policies that it
> enforces are being conflated in this thread. There's nothing stopping
> us from adding the ability for the user to decide what their consensus
> parameters should be at runtime. In fact, that's already in use:
> ./bitcoind -testnet. As mentioned in another thread, the chain params
> could even come from a config file that the user could edit without
> touching the code.

For what is worth, here's yet another piece of code from the "doing
nothing" side:

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/6382

It allows you to create a regtest-like testchain with a maximum block
size chosen at run time.
Rusty used a less generic testchain for testing 8 MB blocks:

http://rusty.ozlabs.org/?p=509

Unfortunately I don't know of anybody that has used my patch to test
any other size (maybe there's not that much interest in testing other
sizes after all?).

I'm totally in favor of preemptively adapting the code so that when a
new blocksize is to be deployed, adapting the code is not a problem.
Developers can agree on many changes in the code without users having
to agree on a concrete block size first.
I offer my help to do that. That's what I'm trying to do in #6382 and
http://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2015-June/008961.html
but to my surprise that gets disregarded as "doing nothing" and as
"having a negative attitude", when not simply ignored.