Subject: Re: [Bitcoin-development] Block Size Increase

From: Jeff Garzik <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 7 May 2015 22:09:42 -0400

On Thu, May 7, 2015 at 9:40 PM, Tom Harding <[email-masked]> wrote:

> On 5/7/2015 12:54 PM, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> > 2) Where do you want to go?  Should bitcoin scale up to handle all the
> > world's coffees?
>
> Alan was very clear.  Right now, he wants to go exactly where Gavin's
> concrete proposal suggests.
>

G proposed 20MB blocks, AFAIK - 140 tps
A proposed 100MB blocks - 700 tps
For ref,
Paypal is around 115 tps
VISA is around 2000 tps (perhaps 4000 tps peak)

I ask again:  where do we want to go?   This is the existential question
behind block size.

Are we trying to build a system that can handle Paypal volumes?  VISA
volumes?

It's not a snarky or sarcastic question:  Are we building a system to
handle all the world's coffees?  Is bitcoin's main chain and network -
Layer 1 - going to receive direct connections from 500m mobile phones,
broadcasting transactions?

We must answer these questions to inform the change being discussed today,
in order to decide what makes the most sense as a new limit.  Any
responsible project of this magnitude must have a better story than "zomg
1MB, therefore I picked 20MB out of a hat"  Must be able to answer /why/
the new limit was picked.

As G notes, changing the block size is simply kicking the can down the
road: http://gavinandresen.ninja/it-must-be-done-but-is-not-a-panacea
Necessarily one must ask, today, what happens when we get to the end of
that newly paved road.

-- 
Jeff Garzik
Bitcoin core developer and open source evangelist
BitPay, Inc.      https://bitpay.com/