Re: Why the Bitcoin rules can't change (reading time ~5min)
These discussions are getting silly.
hazek, even if running a full node gets too expensive for you (which I don't think is likely), you don't have to pay for a node entirely by yourself. You can team up with other like minded people and split the costs. Using assurance contracts and a computer in a remote datacenter capable of trusted computing, you can even do it with people you don't know and don't trust. By the time this becomes an issue, the software to make all that easy will probably have existed for some time. If not then again, you can team up with other people and fund it. I'm sure many people would feel the same way as you and be willing to contribute.
But even at high transaction rates, the cost of a full node is not likely to exceed the spare funds of an employed person with a decent wage anytime soon. Not unless you believe Bitcoin will become more widely used than Visa in the next couple of years, which would be absurdly optimistic even by the standards of our community
People on 56k modems can of course use SPV clients even at high transaction rates. You know exactly what rules they are enforcing because, assuming you are patient enough to download web pages over your dialup connection, the ruleset being enforced by the miner majority will be documented somewhere! If you disagree with those rules, well, that sucks to be you because then you're no longer on the best chain even if you run a full node and are essentially using a different currency.
In short, even if Bitcoin becomes enormous, I can't see a time when hazek is unable to check what the rules are, even in the unlikely even that he is forced to rely on SPV mode.
hazek, even if running a full node gets too expensive for you (which I don't think is likely), you don't have to pay for a node entirely by yourself. You can team up with other like minded people and split the costs. Using assurance contracts and a computer in a remote datacenter capable of trusted computing, you can even do it with people you don't know and don't trust. By the time this becomes an issue, the software to make all that easy will probably have existed for some time. If not then again, you can team up with other people and fund it. I'm sure many people would feel the same way as you and be willing to contribute.
But even at high transaction rates, the cost of a full node is not likely to exceed the spare funds of an employed person with a decent wage anytime soon. Not unless you believe Bitcoin will become more widely used than Visa in the next couple of years, which would be absurdly optimistic even by the standards of our community
People on 56k modems can of course use SPV clients even at high transaction rates. You know exactly what rules they are enforcing because, assuming you are patient enough to download web pages over your dialup connection, the ruleset being enforced by the miner majority will be documented somewhere! If you disagree with those rules, well, that sucks to be you because then you're no longer on the best chain even if you run a full node and are essentially using a different currency.
In short, even if Bitcoin becomes enormous, I can't see a time when hazek is unable to check what the rules are, even in the unlikely even that he is forced to rely on SPV mode.