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It can scale: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Scalability https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Scalability

by qopp 11y ago

mpyne 11y ago
The 3 trans/per second limit is an inherent limit in the protocol right now. Fixing that is being discussed but will require a fork (and has already lead to a lot of religious warfare). Even after the fork, the requirements of supporting humongous blocks just to support more than 3 transactions per second will lead to even more centralization of Bitcoin than what's already happened, as full nodes are forced to move onto server-grade hardware instead of an actual decentralized swarm. You don't trust the USG? Great! But now you have to trust China and GHash.io instead, it's been years since Bitcoin has actually been "decentralized" in any meaningful sense. But even with the low current block size, money supply inflation, and plummeting Bitcoin price, the network has still failed to scale as judged by the only thing that matters: Cost per transaction is still $10, and it would be even more expensive if Bitcoin price ever went back up! https://blockchain.info/charts/cost-per-transaction https://blockchain.info/charts/cost-per-transaction
- grubles 11y ago
  Keep in mind that the cost-per-transaction is the total value of the block reward of a block (currently 25 BTC + fees) divided by the number of transactions confirmed on the network in that block.
  - mpyne 11y ago
    Oh, I'm quite aware. So are the miners, and so are the Bitcoin core developers, who are increasingly starting to think that Bitcoin will never be able to shift completely over to miners' fees as a way of funding the Bitcoin network, and that the existing block reward subsidy (read: money supply inflation) might have to continue instead of being phased out the way Satoshi had envisioned.
petertodd 11y ago
I really need to get around to fixing that page... it doesn't represent how the majority of devs think Bitcoin will scale. It's basically just saying "throw enough computing power at the problem and we'll be ok", which is very much not what scaling is about - it's not unlike saying bubble sort scales because of Moore's law.
- grubles 11y ago
  >I really need to get around to fixing that page... Someone does. I tried bugging Luke-jr to start commenting here (as in HN in general), but received no reply. I rarely see bitcoin core developers commenting on HN.

It can scale: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Scalability https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Scalability

by qopp 11y ago

It can scale: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Scalability https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Scalability

mpyne 11y ago

The 3 trans/per second limit is an inherent limit in the protocol right now. Fixing that is being discussed but will require a fork (and has already lead to a lot of religious warfare). Even after the fork, the requirements of supporting humongous blocks just to support more than 3 transactions per second will lead to even more centralization of Bitcoin than what's already happened, as full nodes are forced to move onto server-grade hardware instead of an actual decentralized swarm. You don't trust the USG? Great! But now you have to trust China and GHash.io instead, it's been years since Bitcoin has actually been "decentralized" in any meaningful sense. But even with the low current block size, money supply inflation, and plummeting Bitcoin price, the network has still failed to scale as judged by the only thing that matters: Cost per transaction is still $10, and it would be even more expensive if Bitcoin price ever went back up! https://blockchain.info/charts/cost-per-transaction https://blockchain.info/charts/cost-per-transaction

grubles 11y ago
Keep in mind that the cost-per-transaction is the total value of the block reward of a block (currently 25 BTC + fees) divided by the number of transactions confirmed on the network in that block.
- mpyne 11y ago
  Oh, I'm quite aware. So are the miners, and so are the Bitcoin core developers, who are increasingly starting to think that Bitcoin will never be able to shift completely over to miners' fees as a way of funding the Bitcoin network, and that the existing block reward subsidy (read: money supply inflation) might have to continue instead of being phased out the way Satoshi had envisioned.

petertodd 11y ago

I really need to get around to fixing that page... it doesn't represent how the majority of devs think Bitcoin will scale. It's basically just saying "throw enough computing power at the problem and we'll be ok", which is very much not what scaling is about - it's not unlike saying bubble sort scales because of Moore's law.

grubles 11y ago
>I really need to get around to fixing that page... Someone does. I tried bugging Luke-jr to start commenting here (as in HN in general), but received no reply. I rarely see bitcoin core developers commenting on HN.