Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Discussion
Re: What will keep transaction fees up?
by
db
on 20/11/2010, 20:07:31 UTC
It's not a TOC situation because of the fees, as blocks go unsolved, fees accumulate, increasing incentive to solve. People need not generate at a loss for bitcoin to work. Though maybe with some definition of 'loss' some people will anyway.
Blocks will always be solved. Sometimes way too easily.

There are two cases. One is when all transactions fit in the blocks. Then there is a tragedy of the commons. Transaction fees drop towards zero and there is hardly any incentive to generate. This is the case now. Transaction fees are zero and the only reason people generate is coin creation.

The other case is when all transactions don't fit in the blocks. Then transactions will compete to get into the blocks using transaction fees. The maximum block size must be continuously adjusted to keep the transaction prices stable. The only way to change the maximum block size is through a lengthy political process of debate, decree, network fragmentation and majority agreement.