This Conference Might Be the End of the Bitcoin Block Size Debate

On September 25 in San Francisco, the Bitcoin scaling conference, “Satoshi’s Vision: Bitcoin Development & Scaling Conference,” will try to solve a long-term problem faced by Bitcoin enthusiasts: how to alter allow the protocol to handle higher transaction volumes.

Also Read: “The Scaling Bitcoin Workshop Hong Kong Wrap-Up“

Another Attempt to End the Block Size Debate

Bitcoin Blocks are limited to 1MB in size, which has led a vocal contingent of the bitcoin community to call for a hard fork to modify the block size.

Numerous projects have appeared to offer new solutions. Bitcoin-XT represented the first such project, quickly followed by Bitcoin Classic and Bitcoin Unlimited, as well as Bitcoin Core’s SegWit. Most of these projects support a change to a certain megabyte (MB) size per block. A recent suggestion appearing on Bitcoin social media includes calls for a flexible transaction size.

All these ideas and more will be on display September 25 in San Francisco.

The event is a single-day where Bitcoin developers, researchers and industry leaders discuss how to make Bitcoin a peer-to-peer electronic cash system “for the world’s seven billion people”, and will be held at St. Francis Hotel in Union Square.

It will analyze scaling solutions developed in the past year amid Bitcoin’s highly publicized block size debate. The goal is to increase the load of transactional demand the Bitcoin network can handle.

In the afternoon, the gathering will look at longer-term scaling initiatives for Bitcoin’s first billion users.

Looking for Real Solutions

Lectures will be short, most limited to 10-minute talks with an extensive Q&A period. Discussion topics will include China, hard forks, emergent consensus and market forces. 

The audience will be encouraged to interact throughout much of the conference. At the end of the day, a reception at a popular eatery will be held for attendees.

The conference is offered to a limited number of attendees, yet tickets can be purchased on this form. In announcing the conference, organizers thanked the Bitcoin Unlimited Community Organization, which introduced a client that allows nodes to choose their own block size, for generous donations to make the event possible.

While the Bitcoin network can only handle seven or fewer transactions per second, it cannot compete with the world’s centralized payment networks. Transaction confirmation times of 10 minutes can reach an hour or more when demand is heavy.

Many are working on various solutions to increase Bitcoin’s scale, though the community is struggling to agree on the best one.

Will this conference mark the end of the block size debate? Let us know in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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