Hello,
Recently I've been reading "Book of Satoshi" and when I came upon Satoshi's post on August 11, 2010 (page 274), he states:
"It would nice to keep the blk*.dat files small as long as we can.
The eventual solution will be to not care how big it gets.
When I read this I saw two messages. The first was he humbled himself, in other words, he spoke in a way which showed he was for expansion. However to this day and with Satoshi absent, many bitcoin developers are taking his word literally, attaining that this means we need to increase the block size. We all know why we don't want to do so (the little guy can't be a part of the network), which is why lately the price of bitcoin has been going up and down.
The second message I saw was that he never actually clarifies what "it" means; in other words, he never uses "blk*.dat" in the place of where "it" would go.
This got me thinking, what if this mean we should make a secondary large scale network with larger blocks that works on top of the original untouched bitcoin network?
Moving on to the proposal
(This has many different variables so please bare with me all the parts which support the whole)
First, I think the value in bitcoin is in the fact that anyone can be a part of the network. The fact that the blockchain can fit on a 256GB drive means that anyone with such a HD capacity and internet access can do just this. But the issue with keeping the blockchain small and the frequency of new blocks (every 10 minutes), means there are huge delays in transactions which prevents the usefulness and widespread use of bitcoin (or so I hear). Which is why I propose a "trustee" system in which people with a certain amount of bitcoins can participate in a larger higher frequency network, by putting their bitcoin up as "credit" and "trust" while also writing to a 2nd ledger that will update, say, every minute instead.
All these transactions will then be written to the main blockchain in the same format of a regular transaction but highlighted with the larger ledger link, so that in effect we're simply compressing transactions into the original blockchain which operates on a slower, but more reliable scale.
I can imagine all sorts of questions arising from this such as, "what if one wants to use/remove said bitcoins put up in the trustee/escrow system?"
Well from then one will select an option in the program to send these bitcoins to another account and this would take time as all the current list of transactions would have to be finalized into the larger ledger before the bitcoins in the credit system are sent to this address. From here on the user is can just store incoming larger ledger but not make new blocks.
In essence, partaking in this larger network means you are actively using a private key on behalf of a larger group of people with your "trust bitcoins" as the leverage, in order to be the bridge between a larger, faster and slightly higher fee'd network and the original, slow but very reliable and accessible-to-all network (both need to exist for balance).
Second, make the transaction fee through the speedier network more than the minimum transaction fee of the bitcoin core network, so that those who share and update this larger ledger, can pay the original transaction, and for the larger hd space and faster internet access.
Now the issue right now is finding the right numbers for this, but I believe there are a lot of financial gurus out there who can calculate a general and generous (as in to the people who use the network) system of how many transactions get consecrated into a single transaction for how many bitcoins were passed for the bitcoins put up as credit. but this needs to be watched over with a very careful eye. All the variables need to be discovered for a global representation, and from before this message was spread, (because based on morphic resonance, the very moment something is expressed or shared or learned or grown, the effects upon the world become apparent-not obvious though-and price changes can occur which can result in less precise variables)
i haven't made up a list of variables yet but from the top of my head it would be pricing of all electrical components, internet population, average bitcoin size of wallets.. etc, previous variables of the bitcoin.. all these would have to be considered by the users of bitcoin. and above all the original network must be prioritized to save (like an elder family member you hold respect to and still care for).
work with me here
I'm trying to start a discussion, a little bit like Satoshi, I'm just very inexperienced with the details but I'm willing to answer any questions and will to brainstorm alternative ideas.
I feel like people have to have an idea of what they want to work out before we can actually get into the coding.
Taking a zoom out here:
I feel like we need to grow bitcoin but we mustn't be hasty with hardforks. In fact, I am largely against hardforks because it automatically leads to an loss of trust (as we saw with ethereum). Its also the means in which a greedy entity "steals" or "usurps" whether from principle or by involving undiscovered "loopholes" in order to take control aka destroy the system. Just look at the sega dreamcast and the original xbox 360 side by side. It becomes apparent there was a theft of principle the very moment you notice the "compatible with windows CE" on the dreamcast. the xbox 360's concave shape practically fits on top of the dreamcast's convex shape. Its just bigger., colors used are identical... etc.
so this method means that anyone who is willing to wait on the original network transaction time (and actually less after more intensive transactions operate on the larger ledger network) can still use bitcoin, however those who need it for commerce, must "invest" or "put up" their bitcoins to be able to write to a larger ledger, allowing (finally) some fees to go to these nodes.
software wise I'm thinking bitcoin core, and bitcoin core+, which means bitcoin core+ will be able to do 2 things and a 3rd additional thing after putting bitcoins in "escrow."
the first two things are bitcoin core+ does everything bitcoin core does (like hold the original blockchain, send/receive payments) and (2) holds a copy of the larger ledger (network which updates more frequently), the third thing is, after a certain number of bitcoin from the wallet is put into escrow, the client can start to condense transactions and collect fees. Transaction condensing can be done with a regular asic block erupter miner, retailored for the larger ledger network and with a low difficulty. again how the difficulty is computed should be based on the original design.
this might make people with those now defunct asic miners come back and help support the larger ledger network.
This all needs to be tested out and retested and tested again, if it fails for any reason, the original bitcoin core network shouldn't bat an eye. Mining for the original network should continue without a problem, however now there is another option for those who are barely making profit with the current bitcoin reward and operating fees.
this was one of the wishes of those running nodes since miners work separately (originally wasn't the case): To be able to receive transaction fees for confirming and writing blocks..
Very curious to hear about your opinion.