Gentlemen, you just watched finance in the 21st century.
*complete transparency
*community driven
*solution driven
*results
Bitcoin just gained a lot more confidence.
Well said. Whatever the short-term fallout, this gives me *more* confidence in the long-term robustness, both in terms of system design (in that issues *can* be resolved quickly without much user impact), and also in the community to quickly arrive at consensus and execute the best solution.
Bitcoin will no doubt run into issues in the future, ranging from similar issues to outright attacks, and I like seeing this fire drill handled so effectively.
And the immediate willingness of people to cooperate when it matters.
OK, so 25 blocks got orphaned, that's 25 times 25 BTC = 625BTC (or approx $29K at the time of the event) that miners worked hard for, and did not get paid for.
The miners on 0.8 did not have to switch back to 0.7, but they did so anyways, "for the greater good".
Are we going to compensate them in any way?
(Of course not, there is a limit to our willingness to cooperate. But I though it should still be mentioned.)
Disclaimer, I am a (minor) miner, but I only mine a few bit cents per day and mostly on Eligius so if I lost anything, it is not much.