Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Discussion
Re: Bitcoin 20MB Fork
by
iCEBREAKER
on 12/02/2015, 09:29:44 UTC
Bitcoin is no stronger than its ability to deal with an attack such as was undertaken against Kim Dotcom.

^This^ is why we must keep Bitcoin small, nimble, diffuse, and defensible.
You mean small blocks can stop US Marshals from breaking down your doors and taking your stuff?

My doors?  My stuff?  You need to learn what the words "defensible" and "diffuse" mean!

Small blocks and their low propagation times/bandwidth requirements are important because of this:

Some people may remember 'megauploads'.  The case is instructive.

At its peak it accounted for a noticeable percentage of total global internet traffic.  Then, at the flip of a switch it was gone along with everyone's data who had been using the service no matter what the nature of the data.

Why was it so trivial to shut down megauploads?  All of the gear and networks that the service used were trivial to identify and valuable to the owners.  

people who live under the assumption that somehow 'freedom' and 'fairness' is going to protect the Bitcoin network if the mainstream financial players, and thus U.S. govt, wants it shut down are living in a fantasy la-la-land.  There are several things which could keep it going:

 - It more useful alive than dead to the existing powers that be, and/or

 - It is decentralized and supported by gear which is both cloakable and dispensable by the operators.  There would need be a lot of potential operators and they can be born anywhere and pop up anywhere overnight.