3 ms·

"The block transaction cap is just a hardcoded value in the client" Why is these even a value? Why does the protocol limit how many transactions can be perfor

• shazow 14y ago
  Many reasons are outlined in the link of the grandparent's post. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Scalability https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Scalability (Check out the rest of the wiki, it's quite informative.) To summarize: It helps reduce some DoS attack vectors and helps encourage the use of transaction fees early on.
  • betterunix 14y ago
    The fact that there is a risk of a DoS attack without hard-coded limits on global transaction volume sounds like a much deeper flaw in the design of Bitcoin. It is particularly troublesome given the existence of protocols that do not have this problem, like Chaum's offline digital cash systems (which have been extensively researched by cryptographers). What is Bitcoin's excuse for this problem? Surely it cannot be that a goal of Bitcoin is to remove central authorities, if some central team of developers has the power to change this system parameter at will. I suppose the only real excuse is that Satoshi was not even aware of that body of work, which would not be all that shocking given the fact that it is not even cited in the Bitcoin paper.
    • bcoates 14y ago
      I don't think Bitcoin is even trying to solve the same problem Chaum's ecash was. Bitcoin is about creating a distributed, consistent transaction ledger; ecash is more like a conditionally anonymized electronic certified check.
      • betterunix 14y ago
        OK, so what is the formal definition of a "distributed consistent transaction ledger?" How is security defined here?