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Topic: Can bitcoin support a blockchain that is 1000 times bigger? Is it scalable? (Read 949 times)

hero member
Activity: 784
Merit: 1000
The problem may be, that the size of blockchain - O(n^2) - determines the complexity of transaction validation, so some naive implementation either require O(n^2) of fast memory, or slow search through the blockchain. Then, if the amount of transactions is O(n^2) and the blockchain size is O(n^2) too, it may end in something nasty as O(n^4) time complexity.

And, yes, I know about hashing, patricia trees, etc. But I point out that the storage is just one piece of rather complex build.

The transaction fee is in place to prevent exactly the O(n^2) worst case scenario I think. For any real usage of the network you are not going to send transactions to everyone in the world. And even if no fee is charged you definitely won't go to O(n^2) transactions/block where n is the world population, there will only be 2.1*10^16 satoshis ever in existence, which is much smaller than 10^20.
hero member
Activity: 531
Merit: 505
The problem may be, that the size of blockchain - O(n^2) - determines the complexity of transaction validation, so some naive implementation either require O(n^2) of fast memory, or slow search through the blockchain. Then, if the amount of transactions is O(n^2) and the blockchain size is O(n^2) too, it may end in something nasty as O(n^4) time complexity.

And, yes, I know about hashing, patricia trees, etc. But I point out that the storage is just one piece of rather complex build.
legendary
Activity: 1246
Merit: 1077
Bitcoin is definitely scalable. The number of transactions is proportional to n2, where n is the number of users. n cannot exceed the population of Earth, which is expected to peak at 10 billion. By contrast, storage space grows exponentially (even faster than Moore's Law).
full member
Activity: 182
Merit: 100
No, bitcoin is not scalable, but something will replace it by the time it becomes centralized.
legendary
Activity: 2506
Merit: 1010
We are gonna have 1000 times more transactions a day.

Well, there are per-block limits, though those are increasing and not permanent.

Can the bitcoin network/clients can handle such a huge blockchain?

 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Scalability#Storage


newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
The current blockchain is about 10GB big. What's gonna happen when bitcoins become what we all want it to be? We are gonna have 1000 times more transactions a day. The blockchain will become a monster. Can the bitcoin network/clients can handle such a huge blockchain?
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