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It is a market. I don't think the word 'free' adds anything, except to perhaps avoid analyzing why the market has the structure that it does. Changing the block

It is a market. I don't think the word 'free' adds anything, except to perhaps avoid analyzing why the market has the structure that it does. Changing the block size changes the market. If the market is currently free, would it still be free if the block size were increased? I think yes. There's no distinguished natural market structure for bitcoin, like all markets. What do you mean by free? Is the market efficient in the technical sense? Is it as useful as it could be in the human sense? I wouldn't be surprised either way of the answer to the first question, but i'm pretty sure there's a whole 'lotta people who think bitcoin would be more useful to humans if the block size were changed.

tyre 11y ago
Free means there aren't external factors interfering with market dynamics. While this drama affects transaction times and scalability, it doesn't fundamentally change the supply/demand curve. Transactions offering the highest fee get processed first and rising demand (of transactions) with stable supply (of processors) raises prices like it should. A non-free market would be something like if Core developers' transactions got moved to the front of the line regardless of transaction fee.
- jrochkind1 11y ago
  Where do you draw the line as to which factors are 'external' to a market?
  - npunt 11y ago
    Yeah exactly. People could be 'external factors', once you challenge the assumption that Bitcoin is decentralized enough to be free of their influence.
- danharaj 11y ago
  Defining a market is itself an external influence. There is no object that is intrinsically a market: all markets are made to exist by human action. Sure, it would be nice that those external factors that define a market don't change too much too quickly, and that those factors are clearly and openly accounted for, but all markets are unfree if this is your definition. It is an ideal that cannot be realized because it is incoherent. I think your example of a non-free market would better be called unfair. Of course, everyone has a different definition of fairness, but it's a useful term for discussion to coalesce around.

tyre 11y ago

Free means there aren't external factors interfering with market dynamics. While this drama affects transaction times and scalability, it doesn't fundamentally change the supply/demand curve. Transactions offering the highest fee get processed first and rising demand (of transactions) with stable supply (of processors) raises prices like it should. A non-free market would be something like if Core developers' transactions got moved to the front of the line regardless of transaction fee.

jrochkind1 11y ago
Where do you draw the line as to which factors are 'external' to a market?
- npunt 11y ago
  Yeah exactly. People could be 'external factors', once you challenge the assumption that Bitcoin is decentralized enough to be free of their influence.
danharaj 11y ago
Defining a market is itself an external influence. There is no object that is intrinsically a market: all markets are made to exist by human action. Sure, it would be nice that those external factors that define a market don't change too much too quickly, and that those factors are clearly and openly accounted for, but all markets are unfree if this is your definition. It is an ideal that cannot be realized because it is incoherent. I think your example of a non-free market would better be called unfair. Of course, everyone has a different definition of fairness, but it's a useful term for discussion to coalesce around.