From: Pieter Wuille <pieter.wuille@gmail.com>
To: Gavin Andresen <gavinandresen@gmail.com>
Cc: Bitcoin Dev <bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org>
Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] Block size following technological growth
Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2015 15:54:47 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAPg+sBi+b46H_4aMccrfUAZKuG2JiY_wyKbDxdJA+jTLKsy51w@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CABsx9T1rN9j8dkFgEqw6dMYfwht8Z=WEzEObZx11XQ59SF4EiQ@mail.gmail.com>
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On Tue, Aug 4, 2015 at 3:12 PM, Gavin Andresen <gavinandresen@gmail.com>
wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 4, 2015 at 7:27 AM, Pieter Wuille via bitcoin-dev <
> bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org> wrote:
>
>> I would say that things already demonstrately got terrible. The mining
>> landscape is very centralized, with apparently a majority depending on
>> agreements to trust each other's announced blocks without validation.
>>
> And that is a problem... why?
>
If miners need to form alliances of trusting each other's blocks without
validation to overcome the inefficiencies of slow block propagation, I
think we have a system that is in direct conflict with the word
"permissionless" that you use later.
> As Bitcoin grows, pieces of the ecosystem will specialize. Satoshi's
> original code did everything: hashing, block assembly, wallet, consensus,
> network. That is changing, and that is OK.
>
Specialization is perfectly fine.
>
> I believe that if the above would have happened overnight, people would
> have cried wolf. But somehow it happened slow enough, and "things kept
> working".
>
> I don't think that this is a good criterion. Bitcoin can "work" with
> gigabyte blocks today, if everyone uses the same few blockchain validation
> services, the same few online wallets, and mining is done by a cartel that
> only allows joining after signing a contract so they can sue you if you
> create an invalid block. Do you think people will then agree that "things
> got demonstratebly worse"?
>
> Don't turn Bitcoin into something uninteresting, please.
>
Why is what you, personally, find interesting relevant?
>
I find it interesting to build a system that has potential to bring about
innovation.
I understand you want to build an extremely decentralized system, where
> everybody participating trusts nothing except the genesis block hash.
>
That is not true, I'm sorry if that is the impression I gave.
I see centralization and scalability as a trade-off, and for better or for
worse, the block chain only offers one trade-off. I want to see technology
built on top that introduces lower levels of trust than typical fully
centralized systems, while offering increased convenience, speed,
reliability, and scale. I just don't think that all of that can happen on
the lowest layer without hurting everything built on top. We need different
trade-offs, and the blockchain is just one, but a very fundamental one.
I think it is more interesting to build a system that works for hundreds of
> millions of people, with no central point of control and the opportunity
> for ANYBODY to participate at any level. Permission-less innovation is what
> I find interesting.
>
That sounds amazing, but do you think that Bitcoin, as it exists today, can
scale to hundreds of millions of users, while retaining any glimpse of
permission-lessness and decentralization? I think we need low-trust
off-chain systems and other innovations to make that happen.
> And I think the current "demonstrably terrible" Bitcoin system is still
> INCREDIBLY interesting.
>
I'm happy for you, then.
--
Pieter
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next prev parent reply other threads:[~2015-08-04 13:54 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 111+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2015-07-30 14:25 [bitcoin-dev] Block size following technological growth Pieter Wuille
2015-07-30 15:04 ` Greg Sanders
2015-07-30 15:12 ` Jorge Timón
2015-07-30 16:23 ` Jameson Lopp
2015-07-30 16:36 ` Bryan Bishop
2015-07-30 16:43 ` Jameson Lopp
2015-07-30 16:36 ` Venzen Khaosan
2015-07-30 17:51 ` Jorge Timón
2015-07-30 18:00 ` Jorge Timón
2015-07-30 16:56 ` Gary Mulder
2015-07-30 17:13 ` Mark Friedenbach
2015-07-30 16:20 ` Gavin Andresen
2015-07-30 16:41 ` Suhas Daftuar
2015-07-30 16:48 ` Adam Back
2015-07-30 16:49 ` Pieter Wuille
2015-07-31 10:16 ` Mike Hearn
2015-07-31 11:43 ` Venzen Khaosan
2015-07-31 11:51 ` Jorge Timón
2015-07-31 12:15 ` Mike Hearn
2015-07-31 13:07 ` Marcel Jamin
2015-07-31 14:33 ` Jorge Timón
2015-07-31 14:58 ` Mike Hearn
2015-07-31 15:28 ` Venzen Khaosan
2015-07-31 20:09 ` Elliot Olds
2015-08-04 10:35 ` Jorge Timón
2015-08-04 11:04 ` Hector Chu
2015-08-04 11:27 ` Pieter Wuille
2015-08-04 11:34 ` Hector Chu
2015-08-04 12:10 ` Venzen Khaosan
2015-08-04 13:13 ` Jorge Timón
2015-08-04 13:28 ` Hector Chu
2015-08-04 13:42 ` Venzen Khaosan
2015-08-04 17:59 ` Jorge Timón
2015-08-04 13:12 ` Gavin Andresen
2015-08-04 13:54 ` Pieter Wuille [this message]
2015-08-04 14:30 ` Venzen Khaosan
2015-08-04 14:43 ` [bitcoin-dev] Fwd: " Venzen Khaosan
2015-08-04 14:45 ` [bitcoin-dev] " Alex Morcos
2015-08-05 8:14 ` Gareth Williams
2015-08-04 11:59 ` Jorge Timón
2015-08-04 12:19 ` Hector Chu
2015-08-04 13:34 ` Venzen Khaosan
2015-08-04 13:37 ` Jorge Timón
2015-08-05 7:29 ` Elliot Olds
2015-08-06 1:26 ` Jorge Timón
2015-08-06 13:40 ` Gavin Andresen
2015-08-06 14:06 ` Pieter Wuille
2015-08-06 14:21 ` Gavin Andresen
2015-08-06 14:53 ` Pieter Wuille
[not found] ` <CABsx9T0B2bZrFHxYR_QNwBmxskQx31zt=QE5BJAYjcOo7wbo3A@mail.gmail.com>
2015-08-06 15:24 ` [bitcoin-dev] Fwd: " Gavin Andresen
2015-08-06 15:26 ` Pieter Wuille
2015-08-06 18:43 ` Michael Naber
2015-08-06 18:52 ` Pieter Wuille
2015-08-07 16:06 ` Thomas Zander
2015-08-07 16:30 ` Pieter Wuille
2015-08-07 17:00 ` Thomas Zander
2015-08-07 17:09 ` Pieter Wuille
2015-08-07 21:35 ` Thomas Zander
2015-08-07 22:53 ` Adam Back
2015-08-08 16:54 ` Dave Scotese
2015-08-07 17:50 ` Gavin Andresen
2015-08-07 18:05 ` Jameson Lopp
2015-08-07 18:10 ` Pieter Wuille
2015-08-07 21:43 ` Thomas Zander
2015-08-07 22:00 ` Thomas Zander
2015-08-06 16:19 ` [bitcoin-dev] " Tom Harding
2015-08-06 21:56 ` Peter Todd
2015-08-06 15:25 ` Jorge Timón
2015-08-06 16:03 ` Gavin Andresen
2015-08-06 16:11 ` Mike Hearn
2015-08-06 17:15 ` Jorge Timón
2015-08-06 19:42 ` Gavin Andresen
2015-08-06 20:01 ` Pieter Wuille
2015-08-06 21:51 ` Jorge Timón
2015-08-06 23:09 ` Elliot Olds
2015-08-10 19:28 ` Jorge Timón
2015-08-11 5:48 ` Elliot Olds
2015-08-09 18:46 ` [bitcoin-dev] What Lightning Is Tom Harding
2015-08-09 18:54 ` Mark Friedenbach
2015-08-09 20:14 ` Hector Chu
[not found] ` <CAOG=w-s9KsaPwveSpgdvsVTWUDV77YY7Em7NZGyxSQMMCccYSg@mail.gmail.com>
2015-08-09 20:48 ` Hector Chu
2015-08-10 4:48 ` Joseph Poon
2015-08-10 17:03 ` odinn
2015-08-10 17:14 ` Pieter Wuille
2015-08-10 17:45 ` odinn
2015-08-09 21:27 ` Tom Harding
2015-08-09 21:40 ` Chris Pacia
2015-08-09 21:45 ` Hector Chu
2015-08-09 21:57 ` Patrick Strateman
2015-08-09 22:03 ` Hector Chu
2015-08-09 22:36 ` Patrick Strateman
2015-08-10 1:52 ` Tom Harding
2015-08-10 3:31 ` Patrick Strateman
2015-08-09 22:06 ` Patrick Strateman
2015-08-09 22:09 ` Hector Chu
2015-08-09 22:27 ` Patrick Strateman
2015-08-09 22:30 ` Hector Chu
2015-08-09 22:44 ` Gavin Andresen
2015-08-09 22:51 ` Btc Drak
2015-08-10 8:27 ` Thomas Zander
2015-08-10 8:36 ` Patrick Strateman
2015-08-10 4:39 ` Joseph Poon
2015-08-10 21:02 ` Anthony Towns
2015-08-10 21:19 ` Anthony Towns
2015-08-10 21:43 ` Adam Back
2015-08-11 9:01 ` Hector Chu
2015-08-11 17:17 ` Simon Liu
2015-07-31 14:52 ` [bitcoin-dev] Block size following technological growth Bryan Bishop
2015-07-30 17:46 ` Jorge Timón
2015-08-02 22:35 ` Anthony Towns
2015-07-30 20:20 ` Thomas Zander
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