On Fri, Aug 7, 2015 at 7:00 PM, Thomas Zander via bitcoin-dev <bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org> wrote:

> If the incentives for running a node don't weight up against the
> cost/difficulty using a full node yourself for a majority of people in the
> ecosystem, I would argue that there is a problem. As Bitcoin's fundamental
> improvement over other systems is the lack of need for trust, I believe
> that with increased adoption should also come an increased (in absolute
> terms) incentive for people to use a full node. I'm seeing the opposite
> trend, and that is worrying IMHO.

And you do the same thing again; you dismiss the need factor.

Of course there is a need. It's the primary mechanism that keeps Bitcoin secure and immune from malicious influence.

Of course not everyone needs to run a node. But that leaves the responsibility on us - the community - to help the situation by not making it too hard to run a node. And I see the block size as the primary way through which we do that.

If the impact of the system goes us, so should the - joint - incentives to keep it secure. And I think we're (slowly) failing at that.

Pieter