Quote from: teppy on March 14, 2024, 05:07:19 PM

it currently is growing: 1 MB per block.

Blocks have been larger than 1 MB for several years now.

Quote from: teppy on March 14, 2024, 05:07:19 PM

what if a block was published that was X bytes shorter than this limit

There is nothing currently preventing miners from publishing smaller blocks if they want to.

Quote from: teppy on March 14, 2024, 05:07:19 PM

"Redeem Nonce" would simply allow the mined block to exceed 1 MB by up to X bytes. Miners would tend to include all such transactions in the mempool where X is no more than the actual size of the transaction, because it would be free money: they would get all of the associated transaction fees while not using up any of the 1 MB space allowed.

I suspect there are several issues with this, but the first that comes to mind is:

This seems like it would open an avenue for a significant attack. Couldn't a malicious party "Reserve" space as much as possible every time fees are low, and then after a few years "Redeem" all the reserved space all at once in a HUGE block?