Sparks flew as ViaBTC's Yang Haibo had a heated debate with Core leaders on BU expansion in r/btc AMA

In a Reddit Q&A yesterday, ViaBTC mining pool CEO Yang Haibo strongly advocated for large blocks and said that many people in the Chinese mining community support this move.

ViaBTC founder Haibo Yang answered questions in an AMA on the r/btc section and responded to the block size debate.

The event further promoted Bitcoin Unlimited, a bitcoin software implementation that is intended to replace Bitcoin Core. The ViaBTC mining pool was launched in June this year, but it was quickly embroiled in controversy.

The AMA comes as the Segregated Witness (SegWit) scaling solution is about to be launched, which aims to increase the number of transactions processed by the Bitcoin network without adjusting the block size. However, this upgrade is highly controversial among some Bitcoin users, who believe that a direct increase in block size - or the variable block size proposed by BU - is better.

Yang Haibo claimed that as things stand, the Chinese mining community wants larger blocks, but there is currently no consensus on supporting BU.

He wrote in the AMA:

“Most mining pools in China have lost trust in Core and are turning their attention to BU. I know some mining pools have privately said that they will not support SegWit but will support BU. The reason they are not turning to BU at the moment is that they are waiting for a better opportunity and Core’s compromise.”

Yang Haibo also called the current debate a "battle for the future development path of Bitcoin" and cited Bitcoin's anonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto, who believed that BU's approach was more in line with Bitcoin's original vision.

Although Yang's response attracted many supporters, it also attracted many critics.

One person who caught the attention was Blockstream CEO Adam Back, who wrote in an AMA that the BU proposal was ‘unworkable’ and ‘untested’.

In response, Yang wrote:

“I have made my point very clearly: the protocol is more important than the code. We have been running BU for more than a month without any problems.”

The push for bigger blocks by the Chinese mining community was also seen at a recent event hosted by Bitmain. This development is likely to continue largely despite protests from Core and its supporters, who believe that alternatives like BU would be dangerous if they gained widespread use.

This Saturday, November 19th, from 8:00 to 10:00, three developers from Bitcoin Unlimited will conduct an AMA on the 8btc forum. Feel free to ask any questions!