Two years ago he threw a bitch fit and said if we don't increase blocksize, the network will die. Now, Circle is taking their $138 million and leaving along with many, many others. The congestion has jammed up the network and it is no longer useful. While we still have our pure values of decentralization, we also have a dysfunctional system that no longer serves many of the original intents.
We should go to 8MB today. Keep building LN so we don't have to one day go to 16MB. That way, all involved in making blockchain projects will stay with Bitcoin instead of running away to other FinTech like Jeremy Allaire.
We CAN have it both ways! 8MB is the new 'small block'.
So this means, you will leave, too?
Circle was a really bad service to begin with. And the reason for their departure is certainly not blocksize (maybe they like to blame Core team for their own mismanagement).
We need a healthy transaction fee marketplace. Even now, one of the biggest miners mines empty blocks, because transaction fees are not lucrative enough compared to finding the next block faster.
The Bitcoin blockchain was never meant to be a settlement layer for microtransactions. It's far too inefficient to accomplish this task. SegWit and LN are meant to address this.
The most important point is that the Bitcoin network stays decentralized. Any blocksize increase is a risk in that regard. Blocksize increases should only be considered, once all other options have been exhausted and even medium value transactions (> $ 20) are no longer affordable (average fee >10% of transaction value).