I used to run two Bitcoin Core nodes back in the day. Being as it was, I simply saw no real incentive for me to continue to do so. My incentive used to be using Armory as my wallet, for security purposes. As I became more infromed about Bitcoin and wallets, I found out about secure ways to use it without having to run a node.

Bitcoin XT has changed this. Now, first things first. I'm all for bigger blocks, but not this way. Specially not perpetually increasing block-size every X amount of blocks. A one time block increase to maybe 4MB or 8MB would be OK for me, plus Lightning network, plus off-chain transactions, tree chains and other innovations which we probably can't yet foresee.

Bitcoin XT has become the incentive I needed to start running Bitcoin Core Nodes again. I'm starting two new nodes today, and I'll be starting two more on the weekend when I go back home from work. I see this as the only way people can vote for whatever their choice is.

I see XT as a terrible way of doing something that is needed. There clearly was no consensus prior release. Hearn and Andresen are trying to reach it by skipping discussion and what I see as a result from this is a very poorly informed auditorium from both sides of the battle. I include myself here. For example, from the XT side, I see a lot of people thinking that this is a one time 8MB block increasae, when this is not true. From myself, I'm far, far from being a technical expert, and don't really know if a higher transaction fee could arise from failing to increase block-size and result in centralization (which I read on another forum). What I can see for myself is that perpetually increasing block-size will definitely result in fewer people being able to run nodes. This definitely will result in centralization, no matter what. This is the point that is a deal-breaker for me with XT. And this the incentive I needed to go back to running Bitcoin Core Nodes.