Bitcoins under discussed long-term challenges.

[hmbdofficial]

Many  discussions  here focus  on bitcoin's price regulation, or energy  consumption, but there are actually  several  technical  and economic  challenges  that are less  talk about  or I should  say receive comparatively  less attention. I've decided  to bring  forward  this thread  to point out some of this challenges  and see how the forum  may look at the challenge  and possible  solution.
- The long term security  budget: As the block subsidy  decreases every four years, minners  will eventually  rely mostly  on transaction fees. This may sound  just okay but Now the challenge  is if  the transaction  fee alone will be enough  to incentivize the minners  to secure the network?
There is also possibility  of hash power  declining and that will make attack cheaper. How do we cob this?
All this are less discussed  because  they are not really  a problem  now, but it might  be a critical  problem  in the future  based on protocol  decisions  made today.

- UTXO set growth: the bitcoin  node maintains a data of all UTXOs because  transactions  really rely on it. now with increase  in the growth  of UTXO  set data the memory  storage  for a node increase, and large node requirements  may discourage  individual  from running  full nudes. If people  are not running  full node great  reliance  will be on institutional node, and it's reducing decentralization. This should be a concern  also.

[Zaguru12]

Yes you’re right the major discussions on the forum is mainly about price and that’s because many people into bitcoin are in for the profit side only.

But the two discussions you also brought have been discussed here multiple times.

- The long term security  budget: As the block subsidy  decreases every four years, minners  will eventually  rely mostly  on transaction fees. This may sound  just okay but Now the challenge  is if  the transaction  fee alone will be enough  to incentiveze the minners  to secure the network?
There is also possibility  of hash power  declineing and that will make attach cheaper. How do we cob this?
All this are less discussed  because  they are not really  a problem  now, but it might  be a critical  problem  in the future  based on protocol  decisions  made today.

This particular discussion is one of the most widely discussed technical questions even on this forum.

This particular question remains unanswered because the period before the block subsidy stops coming is still far from today although in the next few years like 20 years from now block reward will be around 0.048 which is definitely low and since we will know whether we the fees will be enough incentives for the miners and if not something will change because we have seen forks for bitcoin best practices in the recent years.

But for me I think fees will be enough if the market price of bitcoin continues to increase and also the more adoption it gets the more people use it for transactions and therefore more fees most especially if it’s starts to get accept by business then even second layer networks to can come in

- UTXO set growth: the bitcoin  node maintains a data of all UTXOs because  transactions  really rely on it. now with increase  in the growth  of UTXo  set data the memory  storage  for a node increase, and large node requirements  may discourage  individual  from running  full nudes. If people  are not running  full node great  reliance  will be on institutional node, and it's reducing decentralization. This should be a concern  aslo.

This has actually been a concern and has also been discussed freely here, for some people who don’t have space they can simply try pruning which is run a prune node for space more space.

why I don’t worry much about space is because technology is growing in the past a 1GB data or file was a big one because of lack of storage means but today we have even phones with TB for storage. So I think technically advancement will help solve this one and shouldn’t be a worry at all

[Comeacross]

Maybe you're not active in the technical board all this while.

- The long term security  budget: As the block subsidy  decreases every four years, minners  will eventually  rely mostly  on transaction fees. This may sound  just okay but Now the challenge  is if  the transaction  fee alone will be enough  to incentivize the minners  to secure the network?
There is also possibility  of hash power  declining and that will make attack cheaper. How do we cob this?
All this are less discussed  because  they are not really  a problem  now, but it might  be a critical  problem  in the future  based on protocol  decisions  made today.

Concerning this, you should check out my thread Can Bitcoin survive on fees alone after block subsidy dies? several users addressed this issue under that post. I believe there are other threads too but mine is the most recent I think.

- UTXO set growth: the bitcoin  node maintains a data of all UTXOs because  transactions  really rely on it. now with increase  in the growth  of UTXO  set data the memory  storage  for a node increase, and large node requirements  may discourage  individual  from running  full nudes. If people  are not running  full node great  reliance  will be on institutional node, and it's reducing decentralization. This should be a concern  also.

On this one, you should check this thread ‎The Data Bloat Dilemma: Is BIP-110 the End of Bitcoin as Digital Gold? I believe related issues were discussed there. You may find some helpful information on those threads.

Remember you're in Bitcointalk forum. If you really think these issues are under discussed, you are probably not visiting the right board.

[Ambatman]

Many  discussions  here focus  on bitcoin's price regulation, or energy  consumptiom

I haven't seen such topics you just mentioned in a long while
People barely talk about energy consumption and price regulation? Uhh

The long term security  budget: As the block subsidy  decreases every four years, minners  will eventually  rely mostly  on transaction fees

I'm too lazy to start showing threads about these.
Like I usually say if Bitcoin is doing fine before all rewards stops
It would after.

There is also possibility  of hash power  declining and that will make attack cheaper.

We have difficulty adjustment
And even if it becomes relatively cheap doesn't mean a double spend would be viable.

now with increase  in the growth  of UTXO  set data the memory  storage  for a node increase, and large node requirements  may discourage  individual  from running  full nudes

adding to what Zaguru stated
Storage isn't expensive
And it gets cheaper as years and technology development increases
We can associate it to Moore's or just plain old technological deflation.