Bitcoin Forum

Hi,

just a quick question, there is this 1MB blocksize limit in Bitcoin and with SegWit we have effectively a little  more:

So how come it is even possible to have blocks the size of 2MB and more, e.g. https://www.smartbit.com.au/blocks?sort=size ?

Should I understand that the Wikipedia entry is imprecise and the 1.4MB limit should be understood as on average the effective block capacity is 1.4 MB of transactions? And at times it can be 2MB or even more, depending on the transactions to be included?

Thanks for comments.

Bumping this thread. I don't think that the question I am asking has that very obvious answer so I am really kind of surprised that nobody even tried to answer. On the other hand, threads like "will bitcoin rise or drop in the future?" have thousands of replies, it is kind of sad...

Increasing the block size to 8 MB was offered by the segwit2x system. Last year, this system was tested. Many users expected that the transaction confirmation time and the price for confirmation would decrease significantly after the launch of this system. I think this was the reason for the rise in the price of bitcoin in 2017. But the developers have not reached consensus with the miners. That is why we are still in a state of uncertainty.

Thank you for the answer. However, I am not about 2X part here, because I noticed that already 2MB blocks exist (you can check it under the link from OP) and I was curious what is the mechanism that allows blocks to be that large. My working hypotesis is that it is an effect of SegWit (not the 2X part, though).

I completely agree with you on this one. I don't have the exact answer to you, because I'm not an expert on BTC development, and maybe you would get more accurate answers in the Development & Technical Discussion board, but I will give my best now.

From what I've read, with segwit "the miners now need to build blocks which do not violate the following condition: 4 * Non-Segwit-Data + 1 * SegWit-Data <= 4000 Kilobyte" (source on this link https://btcmanager.com/understanding-block-weight-how-much-capacity-does-segwit-really-give/), so basically in theory it would be possible for the block size to go as far as 4mb (although it's not likely), but 2mb block should be possible, and that's why you are seeing those.

Here are more two sites that got interesting information about this, that you would might like to read:

https://medium.com/@jimmysong/understanding-segwit-block-size-fd901b87c9d4
https://segwit.org/is-segwit-a-block-size-increase-705df6a8731d?gi=9b1ccdb5a674
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/7ruqyt/we_now_have_2mb_blocks_hows_that_for_your/

After reading those links, you would see that it would be normal to get 2mb block with segwit. That should be our average blocksize now.

Thank you, it is very valuable information and definitely it well explains what I am seeing with those 2MB blocks. So the information from Wikipedia is imprecise, after all.

Thank you for the links with more reading too, I will definitely go through them :)

I think they have already increased the size for the transactions. The greater the volume of the bitcoin, the more power is needed to handle transactions and that is a natural rule. Try to research more about Segwit as I will also do it. The reason why almost nobody answered your question is because it is hard to answer if you don,t know anything about it.

Thank you for this reference sir now i know how important the segwit2x is. Many developer are still battling whether or not they will implement the segwit2x proposals where they are now divided on whom to favor with but IMHO large data block of segwit2x gives a good benefit.