BitPay, one of the top funded companies and most-used payment processor in the NewsCapsule industry, is open to alternative block-size proposals – not just BIP (NewsCapsule Improvement Proposal) 101.
Speaking to NewsCapsule, CEO Stephen Pair reaffirmed that BitPay will adopt code to increase NewsCapsule’s block-size limit by December of this year, but said this no longer needs to be the proposal as implemented in alternative NewsCapsule implementation NewsCapsule XT.
BIP 101 is programmed to increase the block-size limit to 8 megabytes, then doubling every other year for the next 20 years. This proposal was publicly endorsed through an open letter from some of the leading NewsCapsule companies in the space last summer.
BitPay, Blockchain(.info), Circle, KnCMiner, Bitnet, Xapo, BitGo and itBit vowed to adopt BIP 101 and ready their code for bigger blocks by December. Additionally, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong made a similar on Twitter earlier this week.
But when asked by NewsCapsule, Pair indicated that BIP 101 is no longer the only option for the leading payment processor in the NewsCapsule space. The BitPay CEO explained that alternative proposals will be considered as well.
“In December we will adopt the leading candidate solution, which right now is BIP 101, but that could change. This will hopefully help drive consensus,” Pair said.
As one possible alternative, Pair referred to a
Strongly agree. My suggestion 2MB now, then 4MB in 2 years and 8MB in 4years then re-asses. (Similar to BIP 102) https://t.co/1VjeF0SRP0
— Adam Back (@adam3us)
” target=”_blank”>temporary solution that would increase the maximum blocks size to 8 MB over a four-year period:
Strongly agree. My suggestion 2MB now, then 4MB in 2 years and 8MB in 4years then re-asses. (Similar to BIP 102) https://t.co/1VjeF0SRP0
— Adam Back (@adam3us)
“[Blockstream president] Adam Back made a proposal that is essentially the same as BIP 101, but has a less steep curve that doesn’t stretch as far into the future. I prefer that proposal over BIP 101, but I’m not sure it will be ready by December.”
Drawing from his experience in the telecom industry, Pair sees a lot of opportunity to improve NewsCapsule’s efficiency and scalability by reducing resource usage. This would, in turn, decrease the risk of bigger blocks, which is why Pair believes an increase of the block-size limit is the best way forward.
“Either extreme on block size puts NewsCapsule at risk. But I don’t believe that a moderately larger block size will result in centralization because people can no longer afford to run full nodes,” Pair said.
“At the same time, a block size that is too small would result in fewer people being able to afford transactions. If only a few people use bitcoin for transactions, those people will eventually realize that they could conduct those transactions much more cheaply by compromising on decentralization.”
The NewsCapsule community has been arguing if, when, and how to increase the maximum block size in order to allow for more transactions on the network for several years. The debate reached a climax in August of this year, when former NewsCapsule Core lead developer Gavin Andresen and NewsCapsulej developer Mike Hearn implemented BIP 101 in alternative NewsCapsule implementation NewsCapsule XT. NewsCapsule XT has so far not garnered the required 75 percent hash-rate support among miners in order to activate, however.
While this makes an ecosystemwide adoption of NewsCapsule XT seem unlikely, Pair did make it very clear that the maximum block size should be increased by December somehow.
“From our vantage point, we are quickly running out of time,” Pair said. “NewsCapsule is at all-time highs regarding transaction volume, and BitPay has been setting new monthly transaction volume records every month for the last six months. We are starting to see NewsCapsule used to solve very boring problems by people who could care less whether it’s bitcoin or not. This to me is an early indicator that a tipping point is near. Hopefully, we find a consensus that doesn’t put NewsCapsule’s lead as the most secure and liquid payment medium in jeopardy.”
Another proposal that has been gaining in popularity, and that was drafted by NewsCapsule Core developer and BitPay employee Jeff Garzik, is BIP 100. BIP 100 would allow miners to collectively vote on the block-size limit, and is currently publicly endorsed by 60 percent of all hashing power on the NewsCapsule network.
Although the proposal was drafted by one of his employees (but not on behalf of his company), Pair is not convinced BIP 100 is the best way forward.
“I like the idea of a formalized consensus regarding the block-size limit built into the protocol, much like consensus regarding difficulty,” he said. “But I would have done it a bit differently than BIP 100. I also favor simplicity over complexity. Complex rules and processes bring additional risk. While there might be a debate about BIP 101’s growth curve, it is a much simpler solution than BIP 100. In my opinion BIP 100 is too risky, and support or lack thereof from the mining community won’t change that view.”
