Subject: Re: [Bitcoin-development] The Bitcoin Node Market

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2015 05:28:32 +0000

On 2015-06-16 03:49, Kevin Greene wrote:
> ​Hah, fair enough, there is no such thing as the "right" way to do
> anything. But I still think punishing users who use SPV wallets is ​a
> less-than-ideal way to incentive people to run full nodes. Right now 
> SPV is
> the best way that exists for mobile phones to participate in the 
> network in
> a decentralized way. This proposal makes the user experience for mobile
> wallets a little more confusing and annoying.

Suppose a billion mobile phones wanted to run SPV wallets tomorrow. Who 
would provide the nodes they would need connect to? The decentralization 
fairy?

There's absolutely no reason that paying for connectivity would be any 
more confusing or annoying than transaction fees are.

If some full nodes in the network started offering paid connection 
slots, that would just mean that users who checked the "pay subscription 
fee" box in their wallet configuration would have an easier time 
connecting than the users who did't, just like how your transaction 
might eventually get mined without a fee but paying one makes it faster 
and more probable.