[2015-12-04] Bitcoin Mining Titan BitFury: No to BIP 101, Yes to Block-size Cons

[ezak]

Bitcoin Mining Titan BitFury: No to BIP 101, Yes to Block-size Consensus

In anticipation of the Scaling Bitcoin Hong Kong workshop on the 6th and 7th of this month, BitFury has re-established its belief that the current 1 megabyte block-size limit must be changed only if agreed upon by consensus.

The largest mining pool outside of China, controlling some 15 percent of hashing power on the Bitcoin network, maintains that it won't change its code to allow for bigger blocks through a solution that's not broadly accepted by the Bitcoin community – such as BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal) 101.

“We will not use a solution if it is not based on a consensus among the Bitcoin community, as we think the idea of consensus is central to the Bitcoin protocol,”

BitFury CEO Valery Vavilov told Bitcoin Magazine. “As Bitcoin Core developers note , Bitcoin is not only software, but also a blockchain protocol. Therefore, we think that the Bitcoin protocol should be developed like other Internet protocols – by a consensus process involving all parties. This process may be lengthy, but it is better than making decisions that don’t consider all points of view.”

December might be a crucial month for Bitcoin's future, as the block-size dispute – representing a trade-off between the number of transactions the Bitcoin network can handle and its decentralization – might reach a critical juncture. A large segment of Bitcoin's engineering and academic community will discuss the issue of how best to scale Bitcoin at the upcoming workshop in Hong Kong starting this Sunday, while several prominent Bitcoin companies have stated they intend to change their code to allow for bigger blocks shortly afterward.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/bitcoin-mining-titan-bitfury-no-to-bip-yes-to-block-size-consensus-1449253663

[RastoMan]

I think the community can accept that it is quite urgent to raise the block size now. It is limiting the transaction speed now. Maybe the first step is to raise it to 2MB.

[LiteCoinGuy]

"“Bitcoin's block-size limit needs to be increased in order to achieve wide Bitcoin adoption, but we don't consider this an urgent issue,” Vavilov said. “As statistics suggest, the current average block size is a little over 0.5 megabyte – well below the 1 megabyte block-size limit. We believe that most of transaction throughput would be performed off-chain in the long term using Lightning, sidechains and other scaling technologies. However, even in this case, the blocks sizes need to be increased eventually; the authors of the Lightning white paper estimate the necessary block size for global Bitcoin plus Lightning adoption at more than 100 megabytes per block.”"

[Carlton Banks]

We believe that most of transaction throughput would be performed off-chain in the long term using Lightning, sidechains and other scaling technologies. However, even in this case, the blocks sizes need to be increased eventually; the authors of the Lightning white paper estimate the necessary block size for global Bitcoin plus Lightning adoption at more than 100 megabytes per block.”"[/i]

Thing is, Pieter Wuille is working on re-implementing the multi-signature scheme in a way that will make those transactions more space efficient on the blockchain, so basing the potential on the specifications from original Lightning paper isn't relevant any more. Although I'm not sure what factor of improvement Pieter is citing (the work is so far incomplete), but I think even the recent "Lightning for implemention today" made some improvements to the transaction throughput potential.

100 MB can probably be brought down by an order of magnitude. Isn't that great, Litecoinguy? You'll be able run a full node much more easily.

[Denker]

I think the community can accept that it is quite urgent to raise the block size now. It is limiting the transaction speed now. Maybe the first step is to raise it to 2MB.

Yes I think so too.
2MB or 4MB at the most is what we should expect to see somewhere around late 2016.
It will be very interesting to read the coming articles and thread here in the forum about the output and probable solutions of the HK conference.
I just hope we will not end again in burning debates where both sides throw mud each other.This has to come to an end!

[pedrog]

BIP 101 only becomes active if broadly accepted by the Bitcoin community, 75% or more...

So I guess they are ok with it.