Slowing down blocks
499 sats \ 3 comments \ @pillar 3 Nov 2022 bitcoin
The idea of making bigger blocks or shorter mean times between blocks has been discussed more than thoroughly. But what about the opposite?
What about the opposite, making longer times between blocks or smaller blocks? What would be the pros and cons lf it? Specifically: would a highly mature layer 2 environment make this idea more feasible or desirable?
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245 sats \ 0 replies \ @sommerfeld 3 Nov 2022
Read Bitcoin Astronomy.
It discusses advanced alien civilizations that use a bitcoin like network with blocktimes of the order of centuries so that it's feasible to broadcast the blocks across the galaxy.
Those civilizations have extreme low time preference, always planning transactions for millennia, across generations.
I think we are still far from that need and 10 minutes is good for now.
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56 sats \ 0 replies \ @VzxPLnHqr 3 Nov 2022
It takes quite a bit of research down the rabbit hole to get to a tentative conclusion like this. Kudos!
More, bigger, faster, is not always better when it comes to building a worldwide network like bitcoin.
While we cannot know for certain how things would have played out, but I like to think that if Satoshi had already built LN (or similar) into bitcoin from the first public release, then the block parameters would have probably been chosen to be both smaller and slower. There are a bunch of other things, such as some privacy improvements, Satoshi would have included in this hypothetical initial release too, but here we are just discussing these block parameters.
Slower generation rate would have ensured early on that pretty much all small payments (coffees, pizzas, etc) would have been off-chain. So yes, there would have been a highly mature second layer earlier on.
Smaller blocks would have been easier to broadcast via other methods. For example, ideally the blocks would be small enough and slow enough that they could propagate easily via low power, long distance, radio protocols (LoRa and similar).
And yes, these changes (while unlikely to achieve consensus anytime soon, if ever) would probably bolster demand for a highly mature second layer.
Thankfully it is not too late and LN is continuing to grow.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @selfish_gene 3 Nov 2022
поверь очень скоро ты увидишь блоки в 9 минут 8 минут... 1 минута 1 секунда... кто быстрее... просто майнеры ещё не знают как это сделать. но вариант есть. он более чем надёжный. не нужно придумывать слои для этого... я ещё это понял очень давно когда тщательно прочитал белую бумагу сатоши. и это не изменения в кодовой базе это будет как плановое развитие биткоина у уменьшение между блоками время.
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