What is:
a block size limit and why do I keep hearing 20mb or 1mb cap on blocks? All these hard and soft forks, why? What does it mean?
Does it enable more transfers in a single block? What effect would such changes have on the 10 minute creation time?
Does it enable more transfers in a single block? What effect would such changes have on the 10 minute creation time?
I assume that is what you meant?
If so, here are your answers:
Q. What is a block size limit?
A. It is a limit on the size (in number of bytes) of each block in the blockchain.
Q. Why do I keep hearing 20mb or 1mb cap on blocks?
A. Blocks have been limited to a maximum of 1 megabyte in size for many years now. Since each transaction takes up some bytes in the block, the limits the total number of transaction that a block can hold. Since blocks only occur on average very 10 minutes, a limit on the size of a block limits the number of transactions per hour bitcoin can support. There has been some talk for over a year now about increasing the maximum size of a block. More recently Gavin Andresen has made some efforts towards incorporating future changes to the reference client to adjust the limit from 1 megabyte to 20 megabytes. This should allow 20X more transactions in a block, and therefore increase the overall maximum transaction rate of bitcoin 20X.
Q. Does it enable more transfers in a single block?
A. Yes. It increases the maximum number of transactions that a block can contain.
Q. What effect would such changes have on the 10 minute creation time?
A. None at all.
