[bitcoin-dev] If you had a single chance to double the transactions/second Bitcoin allows...

[Michael Ruddy]

Sergio, you raise an interesting question.

I had seen your message to the list related to this idea before [1],
so I went back to research what the viewpoints and conclusions were,
if any.

I didn't find anything too conclusive, but I did find some persuasive
points by Dave Hudson [2] [3] [4] [5] that seem to also favor
increasing the target block creation rate (decreasing the target time
interval between blocks).

Considering that increasing the target block creation rate could
reduce the effect of (but not solve [6]) the fundamental mismatch
between transaction creation and the Poisson process of block
discovery [7] and could reduce miner variance (possibly an aid to
miner decentralization), I think I'd go with option B to answer your
question.

I wonder why this does not seem to ever gain more traction when you
bring it up? The idea does not seem crazy.

[1]: https://www.mail-archive.com/bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net/msg07663.html
[2]: https://www.mail-archive.com/bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net/msg07665.html
[3]: https://twitter.com/hashingitcom/status/595615823340908545
[4]: https://twitter.com/hashingitcom/status/605443289379143680
[5]: http://hashingit.com/analysis/34-bitcoin-traffic-bulletin
[6]: https://twitter.com/jgarzik/status/595611423151030272
[7]: http://gavinandresen.ninja/why-increasing-the-max-block-size-is-urgent