On Tue, Jul 21, 2015 at 6:58 AM, Peter Todd via bitcoin-dev <bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org> wrote:

I don't agree with you at all.

This is a case where if Jeff doesn't understand that issue, he's
proposing changes that he's not competent enough to understand, and it'd
save us a lot of review effort if he left that discussion. Equally, Jeff
is in a position in the dev community where he should be that competent;
if he actually isn't it does a lot of good for the broader community to
change that opinion.

I personally *don't* think he's doing that, rather I believe he knows
full well it's a bad patch and is proposing it because he wants to push
discussion towards a solution. Often trolling the a audience with bad
patches is an effective way to motivate people to respond by writing
better ones; Jeff has told me he often does exactly that.

mmmm kay. Let's try to keep it technical, please.

2MB is a limit that has been discussed as a viable next-step, meeting with the most consensus.

2MB gets beyond the 1MB hard fork issue, while still remaining within a safety cap that should ensure the system does not go "off the rails" as some has predicted.

Security, privacy and centralization are not going to disappear at 2MB.

Further, a limited step gains valuable field data for judging whether further steps are warranted - thus informing the "better block size solution" development process.

Finally, as stated in the initial PR, it is intended as a viable fallback should we reach a point of criticality where the user community feels a block size increase is warranted, yet cannot reach consensus on a fancy, all-consuming solution be it 20MB, flexcap, BIP 100, BIP 102, etc.

I am open to suggestions for improving BIP 102. The goal is a minimum complexity fallback that others have previously agreed was a useful kick-the-can compromise - a static 2MB cap.