Topic: Next level Bitcoin stress test -- June 29-30 13:00 GMT 2015 - page 10. (Read 16032 times)

So servers crashed again?  They might want to do a stress test on there own systems first.

You think the average person will put up with all that needless extra crap?  I highly doubt it.  People like simple and they like fair.  The only reason to limit the network to 1MB is to pander to elitist ideals.  People sending large amounts get security, everyone else gets risk and is forced off-chain to rely on a third party.  The wealthy minority get all the benefit and everyone else gets a second tier service.  People getting involved in crypto aren't doing so just to rely on a different third party to handle their transactions for them.  The whole idea is that the transaction is recorded on a blockchain without placing trust in someone else.  If Bitcoin can't accommodate those transactions, the majority will simply use a different cryptocurrency.  Users won't support a network that doesn't support them.

If Bitcoin becomes nothing more than a tool for the wealthy, I don't see how they're going to keep miners on board.  Billions of people sending several transactions a day on a network that does scale will easily generate more in fees than a few one-percenter-wanabees sending the occasional large payment.  As Bitcoin's block reward diminishes over time, those fees will need to increase if you don't want to start haemorrhaging hash rate.  The question is, do you make individual users pay a higher amount?  Or do you allow the number of transactions to increase and collect a greater quantity of fees.  

If, hypothetically, there was no block reward right now, based on the transaction volume we are getting now, how much fee would need to be paid on each transaction to give at least the current average level of fees plus the 25 BTC reward?  Last time I bothered to do the math, we were averaging about 750 transactions per block.  By my figures, each transaction would have to have a fee of about .034 BTC just to cover the 25 BTC reward, plus a bit extra for the current fees that are already being paid (so there's no loss of mining revenue).  How many people are going to pay about $8 or $9 USD in fees for every single transaction?  Most would switch to an altcoin in a heartbeat if Bitcoin became that expensive.  If people aren't willing to pay that much, there will be even fewer transactions and that cost will then rise even further.  But increase the number of transactions in the block, rather than limiting it, then you can spread that cost over a greater number of users, making it more affordable.  Obviously we can squeeze in a few more than the 750 we're averaging at the moment, but we genuinely do need more users than the system will currently support to make this thing sustainable in future.  Unless you foresee Bitcoin becoming a niche, elitist, isolated haven for wealthy one-percenters, there is simply no other option than to accommodate more users.  

I agree. Imagine what an extended period of increased transaction count would have caused!

I am still observing, although I have to admit that I still believe this test, for whatever reason, is still a failure in regards to their actual plan. We won't know anything until they comunicate again. Maybe they'll manage to increase tx/s to 32 again, not sure what's stopping them.

People will probably send smarter transactions if the fee gets too high.  E.g. joining more transactions in sendmany, using internal transactions at exchanges where both have a wallet, etc.  Bitcoin will not go under, and Bitcoin transaction fees have lots of room for expansion before we reach credit card or bank transfer level.  Eventually we will have to use sidechains, Lightning or similar for smaller transactions where the fee will be too high for economic use of an in-chain transaction.  And we will get faster transactions as well.  But there is lots of room for growth before we need that, as this malicious spam campaign has proved.

Transactions per second are not unusual though. I wonder what's going on on their end that prevents them from sending the 32 tx/s as planned.

There is no technical reason for the test NOT to work, the non obvious part would be the OPs agenda and motivations to do it.

Mempool at 12Mb

Maybe the test works after all  Still far below their goals though

Maybe the people behind this "tests" (obviously lobbying for a block size increase) have decided that it is better to do a lower intensity transaction flood during a larger period of time than to do a massive flood in a very short period of time. This is sad because the latter would be much more interesting IMO, I bet a mempool of 150Mb or more is not easy to handle.

I'm not sure that website is correct. Either it is buggy or something is going on.

2015-06-30 6:54:30 = 2153 tx in mempool
Then 10 minutes later
2015-06-30 7:04:30 = 13,760 tx in mempool

That is a 11,500 tx increase in 10 minutes. That isn't a slow build, that is some error, IMO.

Just read through must of this thread and I think we have it the wrong way round....

Seems like OP is not doing a stress test on the blockchain but rather on their 32 servers and clearly they cannot handle the stress...

On a serious note though. I think this test was a good thing overall, even if it did not go according to plan. For me personally it helped clarify many things in regards to the 'increase/don't increase the block size' debate.

No that's still the backlog from the short 15 minute long spike of the actual test.

Transaction number is still slightly elevated but FAR from what KingAfurah proposed for their test.


Check: http://statoshi.info/dashboard/db/transactions
You can see the spike of the actual test that occurred hours ago, but did not last very long.


KingAfurah care to explain what's going on?

15 minutes ago, an miner fee estimate to get into the next block was around 0.00075.

Yes, I think this is it as well. Hold on to your asses fellas. 

No word from OP still, but uncomfirmed transactions are increasing again as if the stress-testing is re-launched.

Total Fees   1.34750694 BTC
Total Size   6693.7958984375 (KB)

Almost at 6 000 unconfirmed transactions so far, i think this is it.

cheers

So this time it only lasted for about 15 minutes. KingAfurah, will you continue with the test? What happened this time?

I think it is actually a very valuable endeavor.

Edit: Transactions are increasing again! Let's hope they reach full capacity.

i think we have to wait and see at this point , maybe there are some difficulties like the last time that their server crashed.
i am really interested to see what they will achieve , and prove with this test.

They already did made a stress test on 22nd, you can read about results here : https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.11700297
There is no incentive for them to create panic if they were not serious and actually pull the stress test itself, since no one would take them seriously.
Judging by the fact that there was increased number of transactions yesterday when they were supposed to start the test, and then it stopped and was re-scheduled for today, i would say something went wrong with it.

cheers

Maybe it was all a prank and they never really did anything. They just announced it and watched the chaos that would emerge from people panicking.

or ... Bitcoin network ban all his nodes after 10 minutes.
so, it's good, too 

So what happened yesterday? There were ~5 000 + unconfirmed transactions at a certain point.
Due to re-scheduling, i would guess that the test was in fact initiated yesterday, as it was originally planned, but due to some issues it was moved for today.
OP was last active yesterday;


but no info or updates since then.

cheers

And what happens after all the "spam" transactions are delayed and adoption has grown to a point where there still isn't enough room in a 1MB block for more "normal priority" fee paying transactions?  That's right, the normal priority transactions will start to be delayed as well.  What do you propose then?  Or do you honestly believe roughly 10 minutes worth of transactions from all over the globe will continue to fit neatly into something smaller than a floppy disk for the rest of forever?