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This session here (video) was recorded just a day before Mike Hearn was one of the keynote speakers at the 21st VINT Symposium. His current pet topic is Bitcoin XT. In his own words: “In about 1 week, Bitcoin XT will include support for 20MB block increase. I will release another version of Bitcoin XT – which also doesn’t include any blocksize changes, but it just tidies a few things up. And then probably within a week or two Gavin will have a change that’s ready to submit to me, through Bitcoin XT, and then we’ll integrate that and release it as a version of Bitcoin XT that anyone can upgrade to.”
Whether the block size should be increased to 20MB has created more controversy than any other question in Bitcoin’s recent history. For some, it is an urgent and necessary step in Bitcoin’s evolution. Their view is that leaving the block size at 1MB would be irresponsible inaction with potentially catastrophic consequences. Others see increasing the block size as unnecessary and a dangerous first step down a slippery slope towards a more centralized Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is the currency of the Internet: a distributed, worldwide, decentralized digital money. Unlike traditional currencies such as dollars, bitcoins are issued and managed without any central authority whatsoever: there is no government, company, or bank in charge of Bitcoin. As such, it is more resistant to wild inflation and corrupt banks. With Bitcoin, you can be your own bank.
And make sure to also read my article on Blockchain Being the Missing Link to Multi-billion Secure Connections.
