Bitpay CEO: Support BIP 101, Bitcoin block should be expanded

Editor's note: The original author is Stephen Pair, co-founder and CEO of Bitcoin merchant payment provider BitPay. The following is a translation.

At BitPay, we hope to facilitate consensus among the community's key developers on the block size limit issue. Rather than jumping into a debate, we listen to both sides and then think independently. Once consensus is reached, and assuming we have no major issues, we will voice our support and move forward with the plan together. While the debate continues, it seems that consensus among the core developers is possible.

We believe that BIP 101 should be included in Bitcoin Core.

Currently, the block size limit is hard-coded at 1MB, which limits overall transaction volume. BIP101 proposes that if the majority of blocks (greater than 75%) support large blocks, then after January 2016, the Bitcoin block size limit will increase to 8MB, and then double every two years until it reaches 8GB in 2036. I won’t rehash the old refrain here about whether this is the right timeline, or why block size increases are necessary. But we do not believe that this agreement threatens the integrity of the Bitcoin system, and we believe that the block size does need to be increased. Another important point about the proposal is that it does not rule out a future soft fork that adjusts the limit downward, or simply delays the next doubling of the limit.

When we consider the impact of increasing the block size, maintaining Bitcoin’s decentralization is the most important consideration. If decentralization disappears, Bitcoin will eventually die. If Bitcoin is not decentralized, you might as well let those who own Bitcoin run a centralized (or pseudo-decentralized) database. This will be much more efficient than the Bitcoin blockchain. However, the more likely outcome is that another decentralized competitor will surpass Bitcoin.

We believe it is important that organizations of reasonable size will always find the ideal full nodes that they can afford to run themselves. If only a very small number of Internet infrastructure companies can afford to run these full nodes, then these companies will control Bitcoin. If the vast majority of people trust these nodes, these companies will effectively have censorship power over Bitcoin.

Regarding the management of open source projects such as Bitcoin Core, it has been asserted that the most successful open source projects have a strong leader who is responsible for the direction and agenda of development. I believe this to be true, but I would add that the leaders of successful open source projects are also good at reaching consensus with other major developers.

While this issue is primarily about disagreement in some ways, I think it is valuable to acknowledge the contributions that Bitcoin Core maintainers and contributors have made to the network over the past six years, and I believe that the Bitcoin development community will continue to make great contributions to us.

In summary, BitPay believes that BIP 101 will safeguard Bitcoin’s decentralization while providing a reliable and instant path toward greater network throughput, and we would like to express our support for the integration of BIP 101 into Bitcoin Core.

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