Re: Can/should Bitcoin software be reconfigured to limit the # of miners?
1. Can the protocol be changed? What if changing the protocol solves the above 3 problems which are limiting bitcoin as a currency for regular transactions?
2. If you have a limited number of networks say 10,000 to process a transaction this should reduce transaction time? And/or how many miners does it usually take to process a transaction? Not every miner right?
1. It can but only when the change actually solves something instead of breaking everything.2. If you have a limited number of networks say 10,000 to process a transaction this should reduce transaction time? And/or how many miners does it usually take to process a transaction? Not every miner right?
2. That is not how bitcoin works. Nodes verify transactions and enforce the consensus rules and prevent invalid transactions from existing. Miners only compute hashes on a block header that their node creates and gives them. The number of nodes or miners won't change the time between blocks, more nodes has 0 effects and more miners will have a temporary effect before the difficulty adjustment is reached and everything is balanced again (2016 blocks in 2 weeks target).