Subject: Re: [Bitcoin-development] Proposed alternatives to the 20MB step function

From: Raystonn <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 8 May 2015 17:13:09 -0700

It seems to me all this would do is encourage 0-transaction blocks, crippling the network.  Individual blocks don't have a "maximum" block size, they have an actual block size.  Rational miners would pick blocks to minimize difficulty, lowering the "effective" maximum block size as defined by the optimal size for rational miners.  This would be a tragedy of the commons.

In addition to that, average block cinfirmation time, and hence rate of inflation of the bitcoin currency, would now be subject to manipulation.  This undermined a core value of Bitcoin.

> On Fri, May 8, 2015 at 1:33 PM, Mark Friedenbach <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>   * For each block, the miner is allowed to select a different difficulty (nBits) within a certain range, e.g. +/- 25% of the expected difficulty, and this miner-selected difficulty is used for the proof of work check. In addition to adjusting the hashcash target, selecting a different difficulty also raises or lowers the maximum block size for that block by a function of the difference in difficulty.