Block size limit question

[jmw74]

If bitcoin sticks with 1mb max block size, and inevitably transaction fees increase, how will this not destroy bitcoin?
If in 5 years, I want to send $5 to a friend, and the transaction fee is $50, obviously I can't do it.

The long posts in the tech forum about this talk about "off chain" services, but what could those possibly be?   Whatever they are, I'd have to trust them and do business in whatever bit-bucks they issue, that they claim are redeemable for bitcoins, right?  And if they told me they aren't giving me back my bitcoins because they think I'm a terrorist or something, what recourse would I have?  None, right?  Wouldn't we all be right back where we started, at the mercy of some big organization?

How is that not a total failure of what bitcoin set out to be?

[gweedo]

Fork the clients, increase the limit, and get 51% of miners to use it.

[jmw74]

That doesn't answer my question, plus it's just wrong. Even if 51% of the miners used a forked client, the rest of the network would still reject those blocks as invalid.

[rini17]

Whole issue is really just about vocal minority that throws around exaggerated claims about impending bitcoin centralization or wants to get support for their pet out-of-blockchain transaction schemes (that don't exist yet). Some even insist that bitcoin full nodes behind 1200 baud connection should be feasible (I'm not kidding, look up one of the other threads). Even if we get 1 TB per month blockchain growth in few years, that will be still well inside reach of many enthusiasts and all small businesses. I see the limit compromise somewhere in that area and endorse the dev team's suggestion to set soft limit that blocks that don't validate in 5 seconds will get dropped by full node, thus their propagation will slow and they can get orphaned easily.

[niko]

If bitcoin sticks with 1mb max block size, and inevitably transaction fees increase, how will this not destroy bitcoin?
If in 5 years, I want to send $5 to a friend, and the transaction fee is $50, obviously I can't do it.

The long posts in the tech forum about this talk about "off chain" services, but what could those possibly be?   Whatever they are, I'd have to trust them and do business in whatever bit-bucks they issue, that they claim are redeemable for bitcoins, right?  And if they told me they aren't giving me back my bitcoins because they think I'm a terrorist or something, what recourse would I have?  None, right?  Wouldn't we all be right back where we started, at the mercy of some big organization?

How is that not a total failure of what bitcoin set out to be?

Good question, with an obvious answer. Limit needs to be raised as we grow.  There are various possible scenarios, and they ought to be analyzed with due dilligence.