1) Bitcoin block rewards will eventually become infinitesimal, at that point transaction fees will be the only rewards miners get. Right now transaction fees are around 0.1-0.5 BTC per block, which is nowhere near enough funding to secure the network by itself. We need transaction fees to go up, and the only thing that will force them up is the blocksize limit. Increasing block size might cause fundamental damage to Bitcoin due to this.
You realize that you will destroy bitcoin when you try to make up block halving losses with higher fees? I wonder how you guys think that could somehow work.
Besides that... you know that we have way way too many miners? Mining is way too rewarding at the moment, the profits are way too high. We need less miners, not higher fees.
At the moment we have a so high hashrate that we could handle 100 times more transactions and the network would still be safe. So we have 100 times more hashrate then we need.
And after this relatively new study, each bitcoin transaction is using the electricy that 1.75 average us households use in one day. For ONE single bitcoin transaction.
No, really, we don't need higher fees.
2) Currently average block size is less than 0.4 mb now that the stress test bullshit is over. Gonna be a long time until we even hit the 1 mb limit.
Though still we will hit it. And the plans for 8MB are longterm. It will happen in months.
By the way... with 1 MB we have no space for a sudden bitcoin adoption rise. If big players accept bitcoins and the transactions rise up then bitcoin would brutally fail. And it would get a hit that would be really hefty. Very bad user experience. Deadly.
3) Once we hit the 1 mb limit free and nearly no fee transactions will be forced off chain. There is TONS of dust, spam, and gambling that can be done off chain. Over half of all Bitcoin transactions right now are basically dusty junk. This will make plenty of room for legitimate transactions.
Only because you live in a rich country doesn't mean that people with less money than you do "junk" transactions.
And when you take this important feature of bitcoin, what will you have then? Another paypal? Great. Why should someone switch to use bitcoin again then?
4) Once almost all the junk is forced off chain the rise in fees will be very gradual, and it will take a long time for the fees to become an issue for people. In any case the blockchain will function perfectly fine regardless of transaction data volume, fees will simply rise.
See again my answer to point 1. There is simply no need for rising fees now. And "simply rising" fees are a problem. Might be it is unimportant for you but free and cheap transactions are a key plus feature of bitcoin.
If fees ever do get too crazy I'd support a block size limit increase too, but I don't expect that to happen for over a decade if ever.
Then why again do we need 100 times more mining power and so costly transactions, power wise, that we look like a danger to ecology?
5) Hard fork of Bitcoin is dangerous and can result in mass confusion, double spends, and loss of Bitcoins. It will damage the value of Bitcoin at least temporarily.
Yes, the confusion is there. FUD spread from all sides, way too emotional. Though that is something that happens on both sides.
I wonder if there will be a problem. I think the fear of the fork is already the worst thing. The actual thing will go through without problems i think.
6) We need to maintain a group of scientists which reach a consensus, not just centralize Bitcoin under a couple of developers.
Feel free to add if I missed any.
I felt free too add.
