Quote from: localhost on September 16, 2015, 01:34:17 PM

Quote from: coalitionfor8mb on September 11, 2015, 11:24:54 AM

After giving it a second thought, I think that "accelerated programmed 2-4-8" you mentioned might be the best way moving forward.
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Smaller static limit (like 2MB) would necessitate having this discussion again fairly soon. In the constant debate about the issue we may begin melting the idea of the limit and instead achieve a diametrically opposite result (no limit at all).

All things considered, the solution space has been reduced to a single static limit of 8MB with a gentle yet quick enough schedule to achieve it. QED

In my experience, whenever you give away space and resources, they end up being fully consumed pretty fast even if things used to work with a small fraction of said space and resources before. Bitcoin works nice even with the current limit: I can still send fee-less transactions and they get processed usually in a few hours. Increasing to 2MB should be good enough for a while. I fear giving 8MB straight away would encourage people to just use up all that space immediately. A good rhythm could be to increase to 2MB, then when it seems not enough again, increase by 1 more MB, etc, etc. And hopefully before it gets totally out of hand we'll have a better way to handle the blockchain than trying to fit 5TB into the users' SSDs....

We need to commit to at least 8MB (though we can do it in a nice and gentle way, like 2-4-8), because the time needed for the new limit to bake itself firmly into the brand will simply be not enough for 2MB to have any effect and we might end up reaching it prematurely, having to debate it again and in that process eventually dissolve the whole idea of the limit altogether. Agreeing on the limit is a lengthy and tiresome process, so we just don't want to do it every year or so.

I would also prefer an accelerated version of 2-4-8 (compared to Adam Back's proposal), as it would allow Bitcoin to keep an edge in the bandwidth department in case its momentum begins shifting towards other solutions, but the most simple and robust way of doing it would simply be bumping the limit to 8MB and forgetting about it for the next half-decade or so.

I agree, that leaving the limit intact for the time being is also an option (arguably a better one than raising it to 2MB), but at some point enough pressure will build up (while the competition continues to catch up) and we will have to rush for the solution in a spontaneous and chaotic way. So, we better plan ahead and begin finding some common ground on what that way should look like.