Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] Bitcoin XT 0.11A

From: Anthony Towns <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2015 17:44:42 +0200

On 16 August 2015 at 15:49, Mike Hearn via bitcoin-dev <
[email-masked]> wrote:

> Sorry you feel that way. I devoted a big part of the article to trying to
> fairly represent the top 3 arguments made, but ultimately I can't link to a
> clear statement of what Bitcoin Core thinks because there isn't one. Some
> people think the block size should increase, but not now, or not by much.
> Others think it should stay at 1mb forever, others think everyone should
> migrate to Lightning, people who are actually *implementing* Lightning
> think it's not a replacement for an increase ..... I think one or two
> people even suggested shrinking the block size!
>

​That's been really unclear to me. Personally, I'd love to see a vote from
the core and XT developers on:

 - what should the block size soft limit be in 12 months (min and max)
 - what should the block size hard limit be in 12 months (min and max)

 - at what rate should the hard limit grow over the next 10 years​ (min and
max)

 - what mechanism should be used to update the soft limit
   (manual code change, time based, blockchain history, something else)
​ - what me​chanism should be used to update the hard limit
   (hard fork code change, time based, blockchain history, something else)

Bonus:

​ - what should the
​transaction ​
fee level be in 12 months (after the reward halves)?​
 - what's a good measure of "(de)centralisation" and what value should
everyone aim for in 12 months?

As an interested newbie, I can't actually tell what most people think the
answers to most of those questions are. FWIW, mine would be:

 - soft limit in 12 months: 1MB-4MB
 - hard limit in 12 months: 2MB-20MB
 - hard limit grows at 17-40% a year (and should be >4x average txn volume)
 - update the soft limit by code changes or blockchain history
 - update the hardlimit by (1) fee level, (2) miner vote, (3) hard coded
time updates at a conservative (low) rate, (4) hard fork every couple of
years
 - transaction fees should in 12months should be lower per kB than today's
defaults, say 20%-50% of today's defaults in USD
 - number of bitcoin nodes, should be 20% higher in 12 months than it is now

​Cheers,
aj

-- 
Anthony Towns <[email-masked]>