The howls of rage by people who have been trying to pretend that Bitcoin is not a batch system and papering this fact over with insecure shitware, propaganda, and ignorance is hugely amusing.
The solution is simple, and looks like it should be available in a more robust form than I imagined sooner than I anticipate. That is, use a sidecoin that is designed to support the use-case properly if they need real-time behavior.
What actually happened is that when F2Pool realized they had been mislead about the effects of the change, they promptly reverted it.
Because, unlike the spherical cow models the game theorists are always using, they value the long term value of their investment rather than the short term benefit of gaining a few extra pennies on each block.
Incentives do work after all.
Hey, if my competition wants to pound a square peg into a round hole with a sledgehammer why should I let that bother me?
Looks like about 20-25% of people understand Bitcoin as I do whether they are new arrivals or otherwise. I really do see some utility in a fracture along this fault line and believe that it
could be the best thing which could happen for the eco-system. Especially if it is not a complete surprise.
Developments to leverage Bitcoin in the capacity where it makes sense are at this point mature enough that they won't be going away at least as a template form. I'll look for timing of problems to coincide with a period when Bitcoin could otherwise be of real value to people. Specifically when people most need and ex-mainstream means of wealth preservation. That would be unfortunate but it is sometimes impractical to win every battle and those who are clued in will still be able to make some use of it.