Here is a link to a video that lays out something that's happening in the Core GitHub right now, which is a little bit annoying to say the least.
Is it just me or his Peter Todd always rustling up these kinds of problems?
I think Kratters conclusion, which is these things are complicated, but when you start to see conversations being shut down, it's a red flag is pretty on point.
Sadly, this has the potential to turn into a fork. I kind of hate that it's happening right now for sure, and it sort of seems like this is why we can't have nice things.
I also can't believe that I'm seriously considering switching to Knots. Considering the goofy number of nodes that I run, it's going to be a pain in the ass.
Forgive me if this has already been posted or is being discussed.
https://youtu.be/o7kCqwR9x24Just finished this, Valid Points.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15biQH1H140Added both videos to my "Watch Later" list. Very interesting, and (somewhat) worrying, I must say.
The thing is, Bitcoin is a human creation, and as such, it is subject to human errors and even a complete collapse if something goes terribly wrong. This is a fundamental difference between Bitcoin and naturally-created elements, such as precious metals (gold, silver), and this is the reason why I'm skeptical when changes to the Bitcoin code are proposed and implemented. To counteract this inherent disadvantage, Bitcoin has mechanisms in place, like consensus, forking, and decentralization, so that any side effects in code changes can be quickly and effectively mitigated. There have been numerous code updates over the 16+ years of Bitcoin's history, and Bitcoin is still going strong and better than ever, which shows that this system is extremely robust and failure-resistant. Still, Bitcoin Core consists of human beings, and human beings often fuck things up for various reasons.
Having said that, the ability to update the code is a major (if not
the major) advantage of Bitcoin, because it allows progress, innovation, and the mitigation of future issues (think Quantum Computing attacks or other advances in cryptography).
Perhaps I should have posted this after watching the videos, but this is my initial, uninformed take on the issue. In 2017 I was totally against the block size increase (heated arguments with jbreher and all). Code disputes, conversations shutting down, potential forks, etc., just worry me. Maybe I'm just being paranoid (I do that often), or it's because I generally tend to favor a conservative ("if it ain't broke, don't fix it") approach to critical code changes. I guess Bitcoin has grown so big that it simply cannot be allowed to collapse. Will see what the future brings. Only good things, I hope.