The Scaling Bitcoin workshop held in Montreal, Canada from September 12-13 aimed to discuss several issues currently affecting the industry. One of the biggest topics on the table was that of the block size limit, which could be addressed through scalability. Among the presentations made during the bitcoin conference was on the scalability of non-currency applications, discussed by Harry Kalodner of Princeton’s Security and Privacy Research Group and assistant professor of computer science at Princeton Arvind Narayanan. Scaling Solutions for Bitcoin As it is, the bitcoin network has been subjected to a hard fork, with some developers favoring the Bitcoin XT software that allows a shift from a 1MB to 8MB maximum block size. Others, however, thought it best…
Billed as a potential venue for debate on more heated issues surrounding the long-term viability of the bitcoin network, Scaling Bitcoin saw a who’s who of developers decamp to Montreal to talk about the underlying technical issues facing bitcoin yesterday. Often reduced in conversation to mentions of its price or market cap, Scaling Bitcoin succeeded at showcasing the breadth of challenges posed by bitcoin’s approach to incentivizing disparate parties to maintain a common and equally beneficial distributed resource. Held in Montreal, day one of the much-anticipated event focused more on how incentivizes for network participants should be balanced and less on the positives and negatives of any of the competing proposals – whether Bitcoin Core, its…
A number of news reports have alleged that Bitcoin XT users have been suffering coordinated hacking attacks. Recall that this version of the bitcoin software was released last month in order to force the network into a hard fork between the earlier Bitcoin Core software. Bitcoin XT was created by lead developers Gavin Andresen and Mike Hearn in order to allow the network to decide on whether or not to shift to the version of the software that increases the bitcoin block size limit to 8MB. Currently, the limit is at 1MB and many have complained about the long transactions times that this has caused. Bitcoin XT Hack? The bitcoin community has been split on the block size issue for quite some time, with some proposing the creation of sidechains or adopting bitcoin…
A few weeks back, the bitcoin network was subjected to a hard fork wherein two different versions of the software have been running. For developers Andresen and Hearn, this could allow the system to make a decision based on consensus when it comes to the bitcoin block size debate. Recall that developers and other bitcoin stakeholders have had opposing views on the need to increase the block size limit from 1MB to 8MB, possibly allowing the network to handle more transactions at a time and to cut down the time it takes for a transaction to be processed. This led to the creation of Bitcoin XT, a newer version from the Bitcoin Core software. Impact of Bitcoin Fork on Prices Naysayers think that subjecting the system to a hard fork could create more problems, as this…
CoinWallet, the UK based bitcoin buying and selling platform has planned to conduct another stress test on the bitcoin network. The company just cannot seem to have enough of these tests, disrupting the service each time. However, what CoinWallet is out to do maybe blatantly illegal and in such case, the implication of such a test need to be looked into and appropriate actions taken by both CoinWallet and law enforcement agencies to ensure that no laws are broken during the process. CoinWallet has already conducted a not so successful stress test earlier this year. Even though the previous test was not completely successful, it still managed to disrupt transactions happening over the bitcoin network. Now, with the impending stress test slated for Thursday, 10…
Last updated: 2nd September As the block size debate rages on – given added fuel by the recent release of Bitcoin XT – stakeholders in bitcoin are picking sides on how the currency should scale. Whether it’s an 8MB increase, or a dynamic limit chosen by the currency’s mining elite, we’re keeping tally of the industry’s decisions so far. Below you can see results from the 15 biggest mining organisations and the 10 best-funded bitcoin service providers. Hover to see the date, and toggle between miners and services using the buttons at the top. The map below also indicates where each proposal has received the most support geographically. We’ll keep updating both the table and the map as more companies make their plans known, or change…