Re: Estranged Core Developer Gavin Andresen Finally Makes Sensible 2MB BIP Proposal!
Increase demands relative to what? 
What "part of bitcoin" are we talking about? Think about what you guys are saying. If every node did not need to receive and process every transaction in every block, and that load was distributed, why would nodes be propagating data to other nodes at all? If a node is not self-validating, it is necessarily depending on trusted third parties, so any data it propagates is worthless (e.g. SPV). Self-validation is inextricably linked to the idea that peers are propagating data to one another.
The entire point is that self-validating and propagating each block to many peers is quite redundant, and requires far more resources than, say, downloading a web page.
Hence, epic meta commentary.
What "part of bitcoin" are we talking about? Think about what you guys are saying. If every node did not need to receive and process every transaction in every block, and that load was distributed, why would nodes be propagating data to other nodes at all? If a node is not self-validating, it is necessarily depending on trusted third parties, so any data it propagates is worthless (e.g. SPV). Self-validation is inextricably linked to the idea that peers are propagating data to one another.
The entire point is that self-validating and propagating each block to many peers is quite redundant, and requires far more resources than, say, downloading a web page.
Hence, epic meta commentary.
So now we went from 'massively' redundant to 'quite' redundant. Ok.
Yes nodes have to validate, that is a good point.
But we still get the multiplier effect where information gets propagated
exponentially. Also we have the relay networks. Greg is so fond of
pointing these out in the context of the fee market discussion where
it serves his arguments about the lack of orphaning risk, so why ignore
them here when they can help propagation?
Regardless, 2mb is still small when it comes to internet bandwidth.
(You initally made it sound like 2mb would have to be uploaded thousands of
times by a single node.)
You're right -- "massively" is probably more appropriate.
What does this multiplier effect have to do with the bandwidth load that individual nodes must take on? Aren't relay networks about overcoming latencies (as opposed to reducing bandwidth requirements for nodes)?
When you say 2MB is small, what are we comparing it to? Web pages?
Depending on maxconnections and the time a node is turned on, 2MB would be uploaded thousands of times by a single node fairly quickly.