4 ms·
In computer science terms, a block size increase is a O(n) solution to a O(n^2) problem (at least).
by tlrobinson 9y ago
In computer science terms, a block size increase is a O(n) solution to a O(n^2) problem (at least).
- colordrops 9y agoExcept it's not. Disk space per dollar increases at a rate faster than linear.
- tlrobinson 9y agoDoes it? This graph looks sub-linear to me https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-cost-per-gigabyte/ https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-cost-per-gigabyte/ There's also bandwidth and CPU costs. If any of those don't keep pace with transaction growth that's a centralizing force. Gavin Andresen actually has a decent summary of some of different "O(n^2)" arguments on his blog http://gavinandresen.ninja/are-bigger-blocks-dangerous http://gavinandresen.ninja/are-bigger-blocks-dangerous though I disagree with most of his conclusions. Regarding all of these, they may not be literally O(n^2) but they are certainly more than O(n) and they compound each other. His argument I disagree with most is the Metcalfe's Law one: > I’ve transacted with probably under 100 other people or companies in the five years I’ve been using Bitcoin; the demand for transactions scales up linearly with the number of people using it. As more people use Bitcoin then Gavin's personal demand for transactions would increase roughly linearly, but because there are more users the overall demand would increase quadratically. Or is he saying his transaction volume wouldn't increase even as more people accepted Bitcoin? I don't believe that.