Craig Wright believes that 500,000 SigOps, or operations on the blockchain, are possible per second if the machines operating the nodes are costing $20,000.
This is precisely what some on the small block side of the debate fear – a situation where it is very expensive to operate a full node, so most people are forced to trust the few that can afford to operate full nodes and offer the services publicly. This is not a situation, really, either side would like to see, but the small block side is against any path forward which would make such a situation possible, while the other side would prefer to implement changes that would slow such a situation taking place, but still scale the blockchain sufficiently.
This is precisely what some on the small block side of the debate fear – a situation where it is very expensive to operate a full node, so most people are forced to trust the few that can afford to operate full nodes and offer the services publicly. This is not a situation, really, either side would like to see, but the small block side is against any path forward which would make such a situation possible, while the other side would prefer to implement changes that would slow such a situation taking place, but still scale the blockchain sufficiently.
This is precisely what some on the small block side of the debate fear – a situation where it is very expensive to operate a full node, so most people are forced to trust the few that can afford to operate full nodes and offer the services publicly. This is not a situation, really, either side would like to see, but the small block side is against any path forward which would make such a situation possible, while the other side would prefer to implement changes that would slow such a situation taking place, but still scale the blockchain sufficiently.
In any case, simple bigger blocks will not create this situation off-hand, but what Craig Wright, and some others, propose is that the operation of the blockchain should be left to professionals, and then others who wish to use it should simply trust them. That is, mining should be expensive, running full nodes should be expensive, and everyone else should use lite clients instead of full nodes. This is a situation that a lot of people would prefer to avoid, but Craig Wright thinks that charging head first into it is the way to scale Bitcoin and move forward, and there are some who agree with him.
That is, mining should be expensive, running full nodes should be expensive, and everyone else should use lite clients instead of full nodes. This is a situation that a lot of people would prefer to avoid, but Craig Wright thinks that charging head first into it is the way to scale Bitcoin and move forward, and there are some who agree with him.
Should Operating Blockchain Appliances Be An Expensive Proposition?
For the present, scaling solutions can be implemented which do not centralize the network nor make it overly expensive to operate fully participating equipment. Sending transactions may become another story with the addition of second rail payment options, and at that point transactions themselves may become very expensive, but most transactions will only pay a fraction of that cost. There is some speculation that this cannot work in a decentralized manner.
However you look at it, the idea that someone should need a $20,000 piece of hardware to fully participate in Bitcoin is inadvisable for the future of the project, and probably nothing that anyone with actual power will be willing to implement. Moving forward, scaling solutions will take root, but they will not be the kind that make it more expensive to use Bitcoin – instead, the aim is to make daily use of Bitcoin cheaper.
Craig Wright claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto but cannot prove it, after all. If he were, he’d already be one of the wealthiest people in technology and would have no need to say anything further. Instead, he seems a charlatan and a false prophet.
Featured image from BBC.
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