<oembed><type>rich</type><version>1.0</version><author_name>npub10tqt6wdc2neye0cxwyphtre6n5uccgur94khtqjdry9wxhrvywlq6w9uu9</author_name><author_url>https://nostr.ae/npub10tqt6wdc2neye0cxwyphtre6n5uccgur94khtqjdry9wxhrvywlq6w9uu9</author_url><provider_name>njump</provider_name><provider_url>https://nostr.ae</provider_url><html>📅 Original date posted:2015-08-21&#xA;📝 Original message:You said:&#xA;&#xA;&gt; There is a perception that Bitcoin cannot easily respond to raising&#xA;the blocksize limit if popularity was to suddenly increase&#xA;&#xA;From this, my understanding is that you are operating on the principle&#xA;that &#34;the optimum blocksize&#34; is related to &#34;popularity/use of Bitcoin&#34;.&#xA;&#xA;It seems that others on this list instead feel that &#34;the optimum&#xA;blocksize&#34; is a function of &#34;technical limitations (namely bandwidth)&#34;.&#xA;Do you acknowledge this as an irreconcilable difference in approach?&#xA;&#xA;Also, I&#39;m not sure, but your principle would seem to imply that&#xA;&#34;outsourcing the decision to Miners&#34; is superfluous. You are concerned&#xA;(according to you) with &#34;not reacting to &#39;popularity&#39; quickly enough&#34;,&#xA;and you are only against &#34;predetermined increases&#34; and &#34;hashpower&#xA;influences&#34; (according to you), so why not measure &#34;popularity&#34; directly&#xA;(by using &#34;transaction volume&#34; or &#34;fees paid&#34;) and use that number to&#xA;set the blocksize?&#xA;&#xA;--&#xA;&#xA;However, thank you very much for actually stating a principle. Unless&#xA;one knows what a person&#39;s principle is, one *can&#39;t even check if* what&#xA;they are saying makes any sense (according to *them*), so my completely&#xA;sincere congratulations on an intelligible email.&#xA;&#xA;&#xA;On 8/21/2015 6:22 PM, Btc Drak via bitcoin-dev wrote:&#xA;&gt; I wanted to offer a potential way to adjust the block size limit in a&#xA;&gt; democratic way without making it easy to game. This is meant only as a&#xA;&gt; starting point for a general idea. Thresholds and exact figures and&#xA;&gt; the details of the algorithm are up for debate, and possibly some&#xA;&gt; formula based determination.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; The living document is currently a gist available at&#xA;&gt; https://gist.github.com/btcdrak/1c3a323100a912b605b5&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; &lt;pre&gt;&#xA;&gt;   BIP: XX&#xA;&gt;   Title: Consensus based block size retargeting algorithm&#xA;&gt;   Author: BtcDrak &lt;btcdrak at gmail.com&gt;&#xA;&gt;   Status: Draft&#xA;&gt;   Type: Standards Track&#xA;&gt;   Created: 2015-08-21&#xA;&gt; &lt;/pre&gt;&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; ==Abstract==&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; A method of altering the maximum allowed block size of the Bitcoin&#xA;&gt; protocol using a consensus based approach.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; ==Motivation==&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; There is a perception that Bitcoin cannot easily respond to raising&#xA;&gt; the blocksize limit if popularity was to suddenly increase due to a&#xA;&gt; mass adoption curve, because co-ordinating a hard fork takes&#xA;&gt; considerable time, and being unable to respond in a timely manner&#xA;&gt; would irreparably harm the credibility of bitcoin.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; Additionally, predetermined block size increases are problematic&#xA;&gt; because they attempt to predict the future, and if too large could&#xA;&gt; have unintended consequences like damaging the possibility for a fee&#xA;&gt; market to develop as block subsidy decreases substantially over the&#xA;&gt; next 9 years; introducing or exacerbating mining attack vectors; or&#xA;&gt; somehow affect the network in unknown or unpredicted ways. Since fixed&#xA;&gt; changes are hard to deploy, the damage could be extensive.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; Dynamic block size adjustments also suffer from the potential to be&#xA;&gt; gamed by the larger hash power.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; ==Rationale==&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; By introducing a cost to increase the block size ensures the mining&#xA;&gt; community will collude to increase it only when there is a clear&#xA;&gt; necessity, and reduce it when it is unnecessary. Rogue miners cannot&#xA;&gt; force their wishes so easily because not only will they have to pay&#xA;&gt; extra a difficulty target, then can be downvoted at no cost by the&#xA;&gt; objecting hash power.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; ==Specification==&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; The initial &#34;base block size limit&#34; shall be 1MB.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; Miners can vote for a block size increase by signalling the proposed&#xA;&gt; percentage increase of the &#34;base block size limit&#34; in the coinbase&#xA;&gt; field. For the vote to be considered valid the block they mine must&#xA;&gt; meets a difficulty target which is proportionally larger than the&#xA;&gt; standard difficulty target based on the percentage increase they voted&#xA;&gt; for. If a miner does not vote, or the vote is invalid, it shall be&#xA;&gt; counted as a vote for no change.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; Miners may vote the size down by signalling in the coinbase field&#xA;&gt; without paying a difficulty penalty.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; Every 2016 blocks, the maximum allowed block size will be recalculated&#xA;&gt; by the average of all votes in the last 2016 blocks, i.e. sum each&#xA;&gt; vote from each block and divide by 2016 then multiply by the base&#xA;&gt; block size limit. This will redefine the base block size limit for the&#xA;&gt; next 2016 blocks.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; Blocks that are larger than the calculated base block size limit are&#xA;&gt; invalid and MUST be rejected.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; The maximum change up or down each retargeting period shall be limited&#xA;&gt; to 10% of the base block size limit.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; The maximum block size may not increase above 8MB.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; Votes shall be cast by adding the following human readable multiplier&#xA;&gt; to the coinbase string “/BXn.nnn/” where valid votes would exist&#xA;&gt; between the ranges “/BX0.900/” (10% decrease) and “/BX1.100/” (10%&#xA;&gt; increase). “/BX1.000/” would be a vote for no change. Invalid votes&#xA;&gt; will be counted as a vote for no change: “/BX1.000/”.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; ==Acknowledgements==&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; This proposal is based on ideas and concepts derived from the writings&#xA;&gt; of Meni Rosenfeld and Gregory Maxwell.&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; ==Copyright==&#xA;&gt;&#xA;&gt; This work is placed in the public domain.&#xA;&gt; _______________________________________________&#xA;&gt; bitcoin-dev mailing list&#xA;&gt; bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org&#xA;&gt; https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev</html></oembed>