Well damn this is cool
I forgot, is there any work in progress for a “LN” type of network for Monero?
And cAPS, what makes you think running nodes will become more centralized than what Bitcoin already is? Or is that not what you’re saying?
Well I take a conservative stance in the blocksize debate. I think full node centralization is a VERY STRONG net negative. I think the end game in that scenario is you have to have a network pipe, storage space and computation resources that are really only currently owned by Governments and Google/Amazon size corporations. Once any blockchain gets to this point it will become possible for the nodes to collude to reverse transactions etc. And we have YEARS of proof it will happen. Even with BTC, the most decentralized blockchain in existence, we came damn close with Binance just a little while back. I am not sure if they could have done it...
[3:43:01 AM] Vitalik Buterin: ok can you guys stop trading
[3:43:05 AM] Tristan D’Agosta: Okay
Currently BSV is the existential leader in this camp design wise. Not only do they cheer on node centralization, but they actually also imply if not right out say that they think censorship is a feature, not a bug. I think BSV is a steaming pile of shit for other obvious reasons but the experiment of an unbounded block limit is at least valid.
But if we centralize the nodes, then we open an attack vector for censorship, and frankly the whole damn thing loses all it's value at that point. No need to burn all this electricity, and continue to use a distributed database.
Well, Monero has an unbounded blocksize, theoretically. And at the moment it is no big deal because the traffic on our chain is so small it does not really matter. But if usage keeps going up (and I think it will) then eventually it will get harder to run (and sync!) a full node. Monero ALREADY has way higher overhead in space as well as computational requirements. When is the last time you synced a node from the bottom to the top?
But Monero, unlike BSV, is actually a cypherpunk project and the developers and community value decentralization. Even the people buying drugs off the dark web do, whether they really know it or not. And I think the hybrid blocksize technique we are using is VERY interesting... but it leaves the door open for a route to possible centralization.
So what happens when the storage space, bandwidth, and computational resources required to validate the XMR blockchain start to become prohibitive?
We need MORE fully validating nodes, not less. Especially for Monero.
What do you folks think? I know we have a fair share of big blockers and other apostates insofar as BTC maximalist doctrine goes among our numbers... I would love to hear arguments that my reasoning is wrong. And maybe I am just arrogant, but so far I have not been converted.
I should listen to Articmine some more... I think he has some fairly strong opinions in this regard, and I don't think he is just a big-blocker nutcase.
P.S. - On a side note it sure is nice to see little XMR marching up a little... but is it gonna break out of it's everlasting rut? It has tended to only do this while BTC is rangebound itself. Once BTC moves violently in EITHER direction XMR tends to deflate rather quickly. I would LOVE to see that trend ended. Something DOES feel a little different this time... What is up with the alts?