with TO.
1) Bitcoin block rewards will eventually become infinitesimal, at that point transaction fees will be the only rewards miners get. Right now transaction fees are around 0.1-0.5 BTC per block, which is nowhere near enough funding to secure the network by itself.[/qoute]
Disagree. If mining is profitable, more people will start mining. If mining is less profitable, less people will be mining, but there will
always be enough miners who are happy to earn some money.
It's a mistake to think miners should make at least x BTC of profit. If it's not enough for some, it will be enough for plenty others.
Besides, why this obsession for the the amount of fees per block, considering it's insignificant compared to the 25 BTC per block they earn anyway.
We need transaction fees to go up,
No we don't!
One attractive property of Bitcoin is the ability to send money around the world, at very low transaction rates. Killing this advantage would be bad for Bitcoin growth.
and the only thing that will force them up is the blocksize limit. Increasing block size might cause fundamental damage to Bitcoin due to this.
Why wouldn't 2MB or 4MB blocks, i.e. more transactions and thus
more fees, be just as good as
higher fees?
2) Currently average block size is less than 0.4 mb now that the stress test bullshit is over. Gonna be a long time until we even hit the 1 mb limit.
If Bitcoin continues to grow, we'll get near the limit sooner than you may expect. Not being able to handle peak volume sucks. Being vulnerable to tx spam sucks. Even if we're not actually using >1mb blocks yet, better be prepared for the future than wait until it gets close and we have to rush a solution.
3) Once we hit the 1 mb limit free and nearly no fee transactions will be forced off chain. There is TONS of dust, spam, and gambling that can be done off chain. Over half of all Bitcoin transactions right now are basically dusty junk. This will make plenty of room for legitimate transactions.
Problem is: who's gonna decide what transactions are junk?
4) Once almost all the junk is forced off chain the rise in fees will be very gradual, and it will take a long time for the fees to become an issue for people. In any case the blockchain will function perfectly fine regardless of transaction data volume, fees will simply rise.
Again, why insisting on
higher fees, rather than
more fees.
5) Hard fork of Bitcoin is dangerous and can result in mass confusion, double spends, and loss of Bitcoins. It will damage the value of Bitcoin at least temporarily.
Just a hard fork? Not necessarily, remember we've had them before.
However actually splitting Bitcoin in what is essentially two blockchains, one Core, one XT, which would sort of run simultaneously, would be VERY bad indeed.
6) We need to maintain a group of scientists which reach a consensus, not just centralize Bitcoin under a couple of developers.
This has nothing to do with whether it's good or bad or (un)necessary to increase the block size limit.