From: Pieter Wuille <pieter.wuille@gmail•com>
To: bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation.org
Subject: [bitcoin-dev] Bitcoin Core and hard forks
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2015 12:52:20 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAPg+sBgugLSVEwDLXhgey86_rM2fTjGWXFuXsiZioJKCZiHiNg@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CAPg+sBgs-ouEMu=LOVCmOyCGwfM1Ygxooz0shyvAuHDGGZYfJw@mail.gmail.com>
[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2564 bytes --]
Hello all,
I'd like to talk a bit about my view on the relation between the Bitcoin
Core project, and the consensus rules of Bitcoin.
I believe it is the responsibility of the maintainers/developers of Bitcoin
Core to create software which helps guarantee the security and operation of
the Bitcoin network.
In addition to normal software maintenance, bug fixes and performance
improvements, this includes DoS protection mechanism deemed necessary to
keep the network operational. Sometimes, such (per-node configurable)
policies have had economic impact, for example the dust rule.
This also includes participating in discussions about consensus changes,
but not the responsibility to decide on them - only to implement them when
agreed upon. It would be irresponsible and dangerous to the network and
thus the users of the software to risk forks, or to take a leading role in
pushing dramatic changes. Bitcoin Core developers obviously have the
ability to make any changes to the codebase or its releases, but it is
still up to the community to choose to run that code.
Some people have called the prospect of limited block space and the
development of a fee market a change in policy compared to the past. I
respectfully disagree with that. Bitcoin Core is not running the Bitcoin
economy, and its developers have no authority to set its rules. Change in
economics is always happening, and should be expected. Worse, intervening
in consensus changes would make the ecosystem more dependent on the group
taking that decision, not less.
So to point out what I consider obvious: if Bitcoin requires central
control over its rules by a group of developers, it is completely
uninteresting to me. Consensus changes should be done using consensus, and
the default in case of controversy is no change.
===
My personal opinion is that we - as a community - should indeed let a fee
market develop, and rather sooner than later, and that "kicking the can
down the road" is an incredibly dangerous precedent: if we are willing to
go through the risk of a hard fork because of a fear of change of
economics, then I believe that community is not ready to deal with change
at all. And some change is inevitable, at any block size. Again, this does
not mean the block size needs to be fixed forever, but its intent should be
growing with the evolution of technology, not a panic reaction because a
fear of change.
But I am not in any position to force this view. I only hope that people
don't think a fear of economic change is reason to give up consensus.
--
Pieter
[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 2775 bytes --]
next parent reply other threads:[~2015-07-22 16:52 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 86+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
[not found] <CAPg+sBgs-ouEMu=LOVCmOyCGwfM1Ygxooz0shyvAuHDGGZYfJw@mail.gmail.com>
2015-07-22 16:52 ` Pieter Wuille [this message]
2015-07-22 17:18 ` Ross Nicoll
2015-07-22 17:32 ` Milly Bitcoin
2015-07-22 18:45 ` Bryan Cheng
2015-07-22 17:33 ` Jeff Garzik
2015-07-22 18:01 ` Jeff Garzik
2015-07-22 18:03 ` Alex Morcos
2015-07-22 18:24 ` Jeff Garzik
2015-07-23 12:17 ` Jorge Timón
2015-07-23 16:17 ` Tom Harding
2015-07-23 16:28 ` Gavin Andresen
2015-07-23 16:50 ` cipher anthem
2015-07-23 17:14 ` Robert Learney
2015-07-23 18:21 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-07-23 18:47 ` Jorge Timón
2015-07-23 17:43 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-07-23 18:10 ` Jameson Lopp
2015-07-23 19:14 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-07-23 19:35 ` Gavin Andresen
2015-07-23 19:39 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-07-23 19:51 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-07-23 19:52 ` Jameson Lopp
2015-07-23 20:26 ` Jorge Timón
2015-07-23 20:52 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-07-23 23:42 ` Benedict Chan
[not found] ` <42BF7FEB-320F-43BE-B3D9-1D76CB8B9975@gmai>
2015-07-23 23:57 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-07-24 0:04 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-07-24 0:20 ` Simon Liu
2015-07-24 0:22 ` Jean-Paul Kogelman
2015-07-24 0:32 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-07-24 0:38 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-07-24 0:45 ` Jean-Paul Kogelman
2015-07-24 0:49 ` Jean-Paul Kogelman
2015-07-24 0:53 ` Peter Todd
2015-07-24 1:03 ` Jean-Paul Kogelman
2015-07-24 1:08 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-07-24 1:25 ` Jean-Paul Kogelman
2015-07-24 1:28 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-07-24 1:37 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-07-24 1:42 ` Jean-Paul Kogelman
2015-07-24 1:55 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-07-24 2:12 ` [bitcoin-dev] Bitcoin, Perceptions, and Expectations Raystonn .
2015-07-24 8:48 ` Jonas Schnelli
2015-07-24 9:42 ` Jorge Timón
2015-07-24 14:37 ` Vincent Truong
2015-07-25 2:18 ` gb
2015-07-25 11:22 ` Slurms MacKenzie
2015-07-25 15:04 ` Thomas Kerin
2015-07-24 0:56 ` [bitcoin-dev] Bitcoin Core and hard forks Eric Lombrozo
2015-07-24 1:05 ` Jean-Paul Kogelman
2015-07-23 18:12 ` Slurms MacKenzie
2015-07-23 18:57 ` Mike Hearn
2015-07-23 17:51 ` Jorge Timón
2015-07-24 6:30 ` Tom Harding
2015-07-24 9:24 ` Jorge Timón
2015-07-24 22:50 ` Tom Harding
2015-07-28 11:29 ` Jorge Timón
2015-07-28 11:32 ` Jorge Timón
2015-07-28 16:44 ` Tom Harding
2015-07-28 17:33 ` Jorge Timón
2015-07-22 19:17 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-07-22 21:43 ` Mike Hearn
2015-07-22 21:56 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-07-22 22:01 ` Mike Hearn
2015-07-22 22:09 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-07-23 1:53 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-07-22 22:30 ` Jeff Garzik
2015-07-23 0:27 ` Tom Harding
2015-07-23 0:37 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-07-23 4:40 ` Edmund Edgar
2015-07-27 12:08 ` Peter Todd
2015-07-27 12:44 ` Milly Bitcoin
2015-07-22 22:40 Raystonn
2015-07-22 23:42 ` Cory Fields
2015-07-22 23:53 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-07-23 0:05 ` Cory Fields
2015-07-23 0:13 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-07-23 0:34 ` Cory Fields
2015-07-23 0:43 ` Eric Lombrozo
2015-07-23 7:24 ` Ross Nicoll
2015-07-23 0:49 ` Eric Voskuil
2015-07-23 18:12 ` Jorge Timón
[not found] <BA7ACCE1-81B2-4AC1-B6DD-7A856FD27D52@gmail.com>
2015-07-23 8:24 ` Gareth Williams
2015-07-27 17:05 Alice Larson
2015-07-27 17:22 ` Eric Voskuil
2015-07-28 4:55 ` Wladimir J. van der Laan
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=CAPg+sBgugLSVEwDLXhgey86_rM2fTjGWXFuXsiZioJKCZiHiNg@mail.gmail.com \
--to=pieter.wuille@gmail$(echo .)com \
--cc=bitcoin-dev@lists$(echo .)linuxfoundation.org \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox