Bitcoin's 2MB block expansion plan is difficult to gain consensus

Last week, Bitcoin core developer Jeff Garzik proposed BIP 102, which plans to increase the Bitcoin block size limit from 1MB to 2MB in November this year. The proposal aims to buy more time for consensus on other more sustainable alternative solutions before the Bitcoin network reaches saturation.

But as of now, the proposal has not gained consensus among Bitcoin core developers.

Peter Todd, who has been critical of block size increases, told CoinTelegraph:

“Currently, the development team is doing their best to keep Bitcoin running smoothly under the current block size limit. If it weren’t for the optimization work of Gregory Maxwell and Pieter Wuille, the Bitcoin P2P network would have collapsed under the load a long time ago. With this in mind, do we really want to loose most of our efforts and reduce our security margins? Personally, I think it’s better for us to let transaction fees rise a little bit and let the market come up with a real solution to scale Bitcoin.”

On the other side of the debate, Bitcoinj and Bitcoin XT developer Mike Hearn is still sticking with the 8MB minimum block size. Hearn said:

“Most community members have said they want a larger block size. Chinese miners are also able to accept an 8MB block size increase due to unusual network limitations, and I don’t think there is anything wrong with 8MB. Most miners can even accept larger blocks.”

He also added:

“Like Gavin’s original proposal, Jeff’s latest proposal is to increase the block size by changing the consensus rules. Gavin’s proposal was not accepted, and I don’t think there is any reason why it would be accepted unless they are following pure personal politics.”

Wladimir van der Laan, another Bitcoin Core developer who has previously been critical of block size increases, also responded to the suggestion, saying that there are no fundamental problems with BIP 102:

“I don’t think raising the block size cap from 1MB to 2MB will do much harm. It’s a conservative and limiting measure.”

But he pointed out that Jazko’s proposed block size increase in November this year may be too soon. He said:

"Because of the tight timeline, Jeff made this proposal and deployed it in less than half a year. I doubt its feasibility."

Similar to other blockchain adjustments, the 2MB block expansion plan needs to be completed through a hard fork.

CoinTelegraph reached out to Jeff Jazko for comment, but did not respond to requests for comment as of publication time.