If Bitcoin was Linux - let's talk about forking

[adamstgbit]

I'm just not satisfied with waiting anymore. We've been waiting, what, 2 years? Suppose we concede all your points. Suppose it ends up being a silly altcoin. I don't see any harm in trying.

without significant hashing power it will be a pretty irrelevant fork
also say you do fork off with 5% of bitcoiners/hashing
why would you need 2MB blocks??? there won't be as much traffic on this new fork...

i think the best thing to do would be to create an altcoin with this scaling direction clearly spelt out, bigger and bigger blocks leading to bigger and bigger players running nodes as the network gets bigger and bigger.

since you are upfront about how you plan to scale only poeple who believe this is a viable option will opt-in. and if/when it comes time to scale, presumably everyone involved is ready and willing to accept bigger and bigger blocks.

If Gavin said, " i going to use everything i learnt working with bitcoin, to create a new altcoin from scratch, with our scaling plan clearly spelt out from day 1"
I'll buy it.

If BU said " We are forking bitcoin with ~3% hashing power, so that we can have bigger blocks"
I'll sell it.

 

[freetrader]

@adamstgbit :

Why is having to sell of your stake in existing Bitcoin and re-investing in a fresh altcoin a better way in your view than already having your existing investment ready in a new location?

 

[Domrada]

without significant hashing power it will be a pretty irrelevant fork
also say you do fork off with 5% of bitcoiners/hashing
why would you need 2MB blocks??? there won't be as much traffic on this new fork...

Hashing power is not as relevant as economic power. Hashing alone does not make the essence of a network. Why would we need 2MB blocks? Simple. Most of the transactions on the old fork would be valid on the new network, because the private keys are the same and the signatures are valid. If but a single bridge exists between the two networks, the fork will confirm all the main chain transactions, and it is the *best interest* of anyone mining the new chain to make that bridge, to pick up the extra tx fees. I'm surprised you didn't think of this yourself.

i think the best thing to do would be to create an altcoin with this scaling direction clearly spelt out, bigger and bigger blocks leading to bigger and bigger players running nodes as the network gets bigger and bigger.

Then I encourage you to do that.