scaling Archives

Bitcoin Unlimited is a full node software client for the Bitcoin network. It removes the limit, allowing the users to determine the block size by consensus.The B itcoin scaling debate is still ongoing since no decision has yet been made.

Bitcoin Unlimited developer Andrew Stone believes that on chain scaling and understanding how people use bitcoin are the most important issues to address. Solutions like SegWit and Lightning networks are good, he said, but they are not addressing the right problems the good way.

The extent the Scaling debate has reached

The Scaling debate has been on for the last two years and it is still heating up again to determine how many transactions can be put into each block on the bitcoin blockchain during the trading and transactions of bitcoins. In many bitcoin forums, there are mixed reactions from people but these reactions have a forward leaning trend towards Bitcoin Unlimited. As for the final decision, we are yet to see what the miners will decide in the recent coming months.

How Scaling will affect the end users

To my own understanding and opinion, I think the Scaling will not affect the end users negatively but positively, since it will protect the growing network against spam transactions from bad actors and it will also enable the end users to know the number of transactions that they are supposed to put or place in each block chain during the bitcoin transactions. Although the latter statement holds true, there are of course challenges with Bitcoin scaling. Some of the challenges will come in the form of Decentralization arguments, Minimum system requirements being undefined, Known unknowns and processes. This effect was pointed out by an undisclosed redditor saying,

“There would also be a related BIP describing the basic requirements for a full node in terms of RAM, CPU processing, storage and network upload bandwidth, based on experiments — not simulations. This would help determine quantitatively how many nodes could propagate information rapidly enough to maintain Bitcoin’s decentralized global consensus at a given block size.”

Scaling versus Fork: What are the connections?

Scaling refers to determining the number of transactions that are supposed to be placed into each block chain and Fork simply occurs when two miners find a valid hash within a short space of time. But the connections come in when the network splits into two, where a half of the network believes one block is the next to be included in the blockchain ledger, the other half of the network believes in a different block.

With Bitcoin Unlimited seeming to be the next Bitcoin processing platform and protocol, it has to be seen how Bitcoin price will react.

Recently some Bitcoin core programmers suggested a move that could lead to changing Bitcoin Proof of Work algorithm. This suggestion has met a wild argument among the Bitcoin community where others are discarding it as not necessary.

It is obvious that the Bitcoin Community is not having the best time in 2017. These can be deduced from the anger some users and miners expressed in Major Bitcoin Forum like Bitcointalk.org. It is rightly so because scaling problem is not for one man, but the whole Bitcoin community. Some controversial scaling measures have been proposed including the impending of Hard Fork. However, the latest and may be the most controversial measure is the change of PoW. The programmers who suggested this approach have a strong belief that this is the long awaited solution to Bitcoin scaling issue. The team who believes that a change in the Bitcoin proof of work is the way to go for Bitcoin recently established a website where they can systematically showcase their idea and try to win the favors of the majority.

How does the bitcoin PoW (Proof of Work) operate?

The original developers of Bitcoin saw it fit to decentralize it as much as possible. Bitcoin proof of work is the number calculations and operations that have to be made by nodes in order to reach the required consensus when making changes to the Bitcoin network. This has made Bitcoin unique because a single person cannot make significant changes to it.

What are the reactions of the Bitcoin community in regards to the approach?

The Idea to change the codes for the working methodology of Bitcoin has not been received well by the community. There are those who believe that changing the Bitcoin proof of work will violate the very existence of Bitcoin. They further argue that the people who wrote the codes knew very well which brick those codes represent in the “bitcoin house”.

Why change the proof of work?

The group of programmers has stood their ground in the argument. They claim that if the proof of work codes are changed, it will remove the mushrooming “gang” of miners which are preventing the network to scale. They say that the most miners are so self-centered that they can even mine empty blocks. They do not bother about how congested the network might become.

Tag: scaling

Bitcoin Unlimited Creator: Only On Chain Scaling Helps Real Life Use Cases.

The Complex Twists of Bitcoin Scaling and a possible change in PoW Algorithm